Breathless

BREATHLESS: FRENCH NEW WAVE TURNS 50

In October 1957, the expression ‘Nouvelle Vague’ or 'New Wave' was coined by journalist Françoise Giroud in an article in L'Express which dissected the state of French youth. The term’s broad application to a burgeoning generation of filmmakers came after the Cannes International Film Festival of 1959, where there was an outpouring of interest in a new wave of young directors. That year at Cannes, François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows won Best Director. Truffaut had first given voice to his generation’s dissatisfaction with tired cinematic formulas in an article entitled ‘Un certain tendance du cinéma Français’, published in the Cahiers du Cinéma in 1954, where he presented a polemical attack on the tradition of ‘quality’ French cinema. The Cahiers du Cinéma, established in 1951, published critical writing by key figures who would become associated with the Nouvelle Vague — notably Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette. The journal promoted the idea of the director as auteur, whose mise en scène more than a film’s screenplay creates the work, or the ‘truth’ of the film. The influential Cahiers du Cinéma critics and directors have dominated the histories of the Nouvelle Vague, but their films and writings tell only part of the story of this prolific period of renewal. Many others made films in a new wave spirit, and the Nouvelle Vague paralleled the output of artists working in other media in their responses to a volatile political context that included wars in Indochina and Algeria as well as the rise of the mass student protests of May ’68.

The outpouring of experimentation began with cheaply produced short films: Jacques Rivette's Le Coup du Berger 1956, Jean-Luc Godard's All the Boys Are Called Patrick 1958 and Charlotte and Her Jules 1958, Truffaut's The Misfits 1957, Truffaut and Godard's A Story of Water 1958, Agnès Varda's L'Opéra-Mouffe 1958, Alain Resnais’s Night and Fog 1955. The first feature-length films by these directors also ran against the grain of ‘quality’ French cinema — from Varda's anticipation of New Wave methods and styles in The Short Point 1954 to Rivette's Paris Belongs to Us 1958; and in 1959 a critical mass of films drew popular and critical attention with the likes of Godard’s Breathless, Truffaut's The 400 Blows and Resnais’s Hiroshima Mon Amour. New lightweight camera equipment, trialled by Jean Rouch in Moi, un Noir, allowed cinematographer Raoul Coutard to nimbly mirror Godard's characters in Breathless; new high-speed film stock made possible location shooting with single-source and natural light. Lightweight high-quality synchronised sound became available for the first time with the release of the Nagra 3 sound recorder in 1958 and was taken up by Jean Rouch in Chronicle of a Summer 1960–61, then quickly adopted by Godard for My Life to Live 1962.

Presented with the generous support of the French Embassy in Australia, Breathless: French New Wave Turns 50, includes films by Claude Chabrol, Jacques Demy, Jean-Luc Godard, Louis Malle, Chris Marker, Alain Resnais, Jacques Rivette, Eric Rohmer, Jean Rouch, François Truffaut, Agnès Varda and many others. The program features rare or 'impossible to see' films, many presented with live subtitling; recently restored prints, notably Jacques Rivette's magnum opus Out 1: Noli me Tangere 1971, as well as Chris Marker's Description of a Struggle 1960; and provides the opportunity to enjoy on the big screen the great classics of the New Wave with much-loved Nouvelle Vague stars such as Jean-Paul Belmondo, Gérard Blain, Jean-Claude Brialy, Alain Delon, Anna Karina, Bernadette Lafont, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Anne-Marie Miéville, Jean Seberg.

The cinema of May ’68 is featured in an associated program curated by Adrian Martin (Rouge, Monash University) which brings together films from before, during and after the events. In New Wave Paris: Paris Vu Par, Gilles Rousseau (Forum des Images, Paris) showcases the strong relationship between the Nouvelle Vague and the streets of Paris, a primary location for so many iconic films of the period. Over the last decade in France an explosion of young filmmakers has been dubbed the New New Wave; Joe Hardwick (University of Queensland) presents a selection of powerful films from these young filmmakers who have again marked their generation.

PHILLIPE DE BROCA (1933–2004) et al.

The Seven Deadly Sins (Les Sept Péchés Capitaux) 1962 Ages 15+
35MM, 113 MINS, B. & W., MONO, ITALY/FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / P DE BROCA, C CHABROL, J DEMY, S DHOMME, M DOUY, J-L GODARD, E IONESCO, E MOLINARO, R VADIM / PRINT SOURCE: NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE, CANBERRA
Nine directors contributed to this playful New Wave omnibus film of seven shorts, each about a deadly sin — anger, envy, gluttony, lust, laziness, pride, and greed.
Thu 4 Oct 12 noon / Cinema A

ALAIN CAVALIER (b.1931)

Fire and Ice (Le Combat dans l’Île) 1961 Ages 15+
35MM, 104 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, LIVE SUBTITLING
Cavalier’s first feature responds to the political context of the war in Algeria with a tale of love, betrayal and right-wing terrorism, censored before it was released.
Sat 10 Nov 2.00pm / Cinema A

CLAUDE CHABROL (b.1930)
See New Wave Paris for The Cousins 1958, The Good Girls 1960, Wise Guys 1961.

GUY DEBORD (1933–2004)

See May ’68 for On the Passage of a Few People through a Relatively Short Period of Time 1959, Society of the Spectacle 1973, We Spin around the Night Consumed by the Fire 1978.

JACQUES DEMY (1931–1990)

Lola 1960 Ages 15+
35MM, 90 MINS, B. & W., MONO, ITALY/FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
‘With Lola I wanted to make a film about the search for happiness, for love in the modern world. It's difficult to summarise the story: the themes crisscross one another and the film, set in the countryside in June 1960, is constructed around chance meetings and coincidence. That's why I chose three different moments in the life of three characters; Lola, the young cabaret singer and dancer, and a little girl and her mother, who represent her when she's 14 and 38 years old . . . I was thinking of Max Ophuls’ Le Plaisir when I wrote Lola and dedicated the film to him. Maybe this fable belongs to the same tradition as the work of Prévert and Queneau.’ Jacques Demy, 1961
Wed 14 Nov 4.00pm / Cinema A
Sun 25 Nov 12.30pm / Cinema A

Bay of Angels (La Baie des Anges) 1962 Ages 15+
35MM, 79 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
‘In Malle, Truffaut, Vadim, and Losey (and in a somewhat more complex way in Antonioni), Moreau has always been the sensual woman, whose wrinkles, circles, and bags were the physical manifestation of a particularly active sex life. Bardot is an invitation to sex. Moreau reveals its most prosaic effects. In Demy’s film it’s gambling and not love that possesses her.’ Michel Ciment, 1963
Thu 15 Nov 12 noon (with The Riveria — Today’s Eden) / Cinema A

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Les Parapluies de Cherbourg) 1963 Ages 15+
35MM, 91 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, FRANCE/WEST GERMANY, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
Demy’s colour-saturated laughter-through-tears musical brought this director on the fringes of the New Wave to an international audience. The budding romance between Geneviève and Guy is broken asunder when Guy leaves for the war in Algeria; Geneviève finds that she is carrying his child.
Wed 14 Nov 6.00pm / Cinema A
Sun 25 Nov 2.30pm / Cinema A

JACQUES DONIOL-VALCROZE (1920–1989)
See New Wave Paris for The Overworked 1960.

The Game of Six Lovers (L’Eau à la Bouche) 1959 Ages 15+
35MM, 88 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, LIVE SUBTITLING
‘In a castle in the Pyrénées Orientales, two lovers who thought themselves a modern couple find they are caught in l’amour fou. Life at the manor, with a frivolous New Wave turn. Also a song by Gainsbourg captured for posterity. Jacques Doniol-Valcroze’s first film.’ Gérard Langlois, CinémAction
Sun 11 Nov 12.30pm / Cinema A

JEAN EUSTACHE (1938–1981)
See New Wave Paris for Bad Company 1964; and May ’68 for The Mother and the Whore 1973.

Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes (Le Père Noël a les Yeux Bleus) 1966 Ages 15+
35MM, 47 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, LIVE SUBTITLING
‘Eustache made his second film with 35mm black-and-white stock left over from Godard’s Masculin, Féminin and also used that film’s star, Jean-Pierre Léaud. Set in the provinces of Eustache’s youth, the film focuses on the character of Daniel, an unemployed young man who spends most of his time unsuccessfully trying to meet girls and dreaming up money-making scams. One day, needing a new coat, he takes a job as a street-corner Santa Claus and in this role suddenly finds himself able to cope with the opposite sex.’ Harvard Film Archive
Thu 11 Oct 12 noon (with Bad Company) / Cinema A

GUY GILLES (1940–1996)

Love at Sea (L’Amour à la Mer) 1962–65 Ages 15+
35MM, 74 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, LIVE SUBTITLING
‘The confessions and romantic pitfalls of a young man in the period of the Algerian war and the beginnings of the New Wave. The self-portrait of a filmmaker, attached to his freedom and who knew how to reveal the beauty of Paris with an aesthetic sense of the highest order.’ Gérard Langlois, CinémAction
Thu 8 Nov 12 noon / Cinema A

JEAN-LUC GODARD (b.1930)
See New Wave Paris for A Story of Water 1958, Charlotte and Her Jules 1958, All the Boys Are Called Patrick 1958, Breathless 1959, A Woman Is a Woman 1961, Alphaville: The Strange Adventure of Lemmy Caution 1965; and May ’68 for La Chinoise 1967, Everything Is Alright 1972.

The Little Soldier (Le Petit Soldat) 1960 Ages 18+
35MM, 88 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
Censored for its exposure of right-wing terrorism during the Algerian war and only released in 1963, The Little Soldier tells the story of army deserter Bruno Forestier engaged to kill a journalist sympathetic to the Algerian National Liberation Front. The attack fails and he is captured by Liberation Front members.
Wed 26 Sep 4.00pm / Cinema A

My Life to Live (Vivre sa Vie) 1962 Ages 15+
35MM, 83 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
‘This hauntingly beautiful film is simultaneously Jean-Luc Godard’s love letter to Anna Karina and an allusion to some of cinema’s great female performances, notably The Passion of Joan of Arc’s Maria Falconetti and the iconic Louise Brooks. A lonely would-be movie star drifts into prostitution in a story focusing on the everyday exchange of sex and money. Based on Emile Zola’s Nana.’ Melbourne Cinémathèque
Sat 22 Sep 12 noon / Cinema A

Contempt (Le Mépris) 1963 Ages 15+
35MM, 103 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, FRANCE/ITALY, FRENCH/ENGLISH/GERMAN/ITALIAN, SUBTITLED
‘Contempt is the story of a woman who stops loving her husband because she discovers that the man is weak. To make money, he agrees to rewrite the screenplay of The Odyssey, which Fritz Lang is supposed to shoot. Lang is arguing with his American producer, Jeremie Prokosch, played by Jack Palance . . . [The] producer has his own theory about The Odyssey. He thinks that Ulysses waited so long to get back to Ithaca because he didn’t get along with his wife. Fritz Lang disagrees with this Freudian interpretation. He feels that Homer and his heroes were simple people, without any ‘modern’ complications, and that it’s important to keep The Odyssey’s purity, preserve the incomparable harmony of the ancient world.’ Jean-Luc Godard, 1963
Sat 22 Sep 2.00pm / Cinema A

Les Carabiniers 1963 Ages 15+
16MM, 80 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE/ITALY, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / PRINT SOURCE: NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE, CANBERRA
‘This image of contemporary war is much more striking than a reconstruction of the years 1940–45 would have been, with its old front-wheel drives and orthopedic shoes. The horrors of war and its monstrous stupidity are even more shocking because the fusillades, rapes, massacres, Resistance fighters, and fires, belong to our time and not some epoch in a distant and historic past. The story is told in a deadpan manner with that black humour so characteristic of Godard.’ Georges Sadoul, 1963
Wed 26 Sep 6.00pm / Cinema A

Band of Outsiders (Bande à Part) 1964 Ages 15+
16MM, 97 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
‘Godard’s joyous realisation of the ‘girl and a gun’ theory follows three students (Anna Karina, Sami Frey, Claude Brasseur) killing time and playing at crime. Transcending its noir genre with endless superb vignettes — the mad dash through the Louvre, the dance sequence, both paid homage to by Bernardo Bertolucci and Hal Hartley in recent years — the film features crisp photography by Raoul Coutard and a memorably jazzy score by Michel Legrand.’ Melbourne Cinémathèque
Fri 28 Sep 6.00pm / Cinema A
Wed 3 Oct 4.00pm / Cinema A

Two or Three Things I Know about Her (Deux ou Trois Choses Que Je Sais d’Elle) 1965 Ages 15+
35MM, 90 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
‘Punctuated by looming Scope close-ups of soap boxes and everyday items — the “cosmos in a coffee cup” sequence is legendary — Godard’s vision of a world in which “dead objects are always alive and live people are already dead” focuses on the daily routine of a housewife-cum-prostitute who moves between husband, pimp and john, kitchen, café and whorehouse with studied indifference. The “her” of the title is also Paris, which was undergoing traumatic “urban renewal” at the time.’ Cinémathèque Ontario
Fri 28 Sep 8.00pm / Cinema A
Wed 3 Oct 6.00pm / Cinema A

Masculin, Féminin 1965 Ages 15+
35MM, 103 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE/SWEDEN, FRENCH/SWEDISH/ENGLISH, SUBTITLED
‘Godard’s critique of the children of Marx and Coca-Cola is notionally based on two Guy de Maupassant stories and stars Jean-Pierre Léaud as a young Parisian intellectual trying to reconcile his political beliefs with his love for a superficial pop singer (real-life French pop chanteuse Chantal Goya).’ Melbourne Cinémathèque
Thu 13 Sep 12 noon / Cinema A

Pierrot le Fou 1965 Ages 15+
35MM, 110 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, FRANCE/ITALY, FRENCH/ENGLISH, SUBTITLED
‘After abandoning his wife at a Parisian party, bored Ferdinand (Jean-Paul Belmondo) flees his bourgeois existence with his babysitter and ex-lover, Marianne (Anna Karina). Taking it on the lam to the south of France, the couple becomes an existential Bonnie and Clyde, battling gunrunners, gas station attendants, and American tourists as they come face to face with their own roles as characters in a pop-cultural landscape. A profound turning point in Godard’s cinema, Pierrot le Fou recalls the gangster cool of Breathless and Band of Outsiders while also pointing towards the increasingly essayistic, apocalyptic visions of Two or Three Things I Know About Her and Weekend.’ Janus Films
Wed 17 Oct 7.00pm / Cinema A

Made in USA 1966 Ages 15+
35MM, 90 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
‘An oblique response to the suspicious arrest and disappearance (in Paris) of Moroccan opposition leader Mehdi Ben Barka in 1965, Made in USA is the unseen link between the frivolity of Godard’s early features and the violent pop imagery of La Chinoise and Week-end. ‘Walt Disney plus blood’ is the formula here as Paula Nelson uncovers a conspiracy.’ National Film Theatre
Fri 19 Oct 6.00pm / Cinema A

Week-end 1967 Ages 15+
35MM, 105 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, FRANCE/ITALY, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
‘Off for a weekend in the country, a couple drives into the clutches of the National Front for the Liberation of the Seine-et-Oise region. Godard puts Gaulist France under the microscope and ushers in May ’68.’ Gérard Langlois, CinémAction
Fri 19 Oct 8.00pm / Cinema A

Sympathy for the Devil 1968 Ages 15+
35MM, 100 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, UK, ENGLISH
‘Stylistically comparable to the formal experimentation of La Chinoise and Week-end, Sympathy for the Devil is classic anti-establishment Godard and also an exciting insight into both The Rolling Stones and the creative process.’ The Brighton Film Festival, 2006
Fri 30 Nov 6.00pm / Cinema A

LOUIS MALLE (1932–1995)
See New Wave Paris for Lift to the Scaffold 1958.

The Lovers (Les Amants) 1958 Ages 15+
35MM, 90 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, LIVE SUBTITLING
‘Louis Malle has made the film that everybody carries around in his heart and dreams of turning into a reality: the detailed story of lightning striking, the burning ‘contact of two skins’ which only much later will reveal itself as ‘the exchange between two fantasies’ . . . During the second half of the film — which is to the act of love what the holdup in Rififi was to stealing — Jeanne Moreau is either in a nightgown or completely nude without any of those special indirect effects, such as having her silhouette cut off by a light.’ François Truffaut, 1958
Sun 2 Sep 12.30pm (with The Misfits) / Cinema A

Zazie in the Subway (Zazie dans le Métro) 1960 Ages 15+
35MM, 89 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
‘Mixing slapstick and surrealism, Malle’s crazy classic is a wildly inventive, whimsically experimental New Wave romp through an Alice in Wonderland Paris. Catherine Demongeot is foul-mouthed, precocious Zazie, a preteen come to the French capital to spend a few days with her drag-queen uncle — and thwarted, by a strike, in her burning desire to ride on the Paris Métro. The film is based on a pun-filled, word-playing novel by Raymond Queneau, for which Malle found wonderfully wacky visual equivalents.’ Pacific Cinémathèque
Sun 7 Oct 1.00pm / Cinema A
Wed 10 Oct 4.00pm / Cinema A

The Fire Within (Le Feu Follet) 1963 Ages 15+
35MM, 108 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE/ITALY, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
‘Winner of a Special Jury Prize at Venice in 1963, Malle’s film chronicles the final twenty-four hours in the life of a suicide. Maurice Ronet plays Alain, an alcoholic writer and roué at the end of his rope. Released from treatment at a Versailles clinic, he makes the round of old friends and hangouts in Paris, hoping to find a reason to keep living. Malle, who also wrote the screenplay, tells his dark tale with a Bresson-like precision and assurance; the film is based on a 1931 novel by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, a prominent French fascist and Nazi collaborator who killed himself in 1945.’ Melbourne Cinémathèque
Sun 7 Oct 3.00pm / Cinema A
Wed 10 Oct 6.00pm / Cinema A

CHRIS MARKER (b.1921)
See May ’68 for Grin without a Cat 1977.

Statues Also Die (Les Statues Meurent Aussi) 1953 Ages 15+
16MM, 22 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / W/ ALAIN RESNAIS
‘This collaborative film, banned for more than a decade by French censors as an attack on French colonialism (and now available only in shortened form), is a deeply felt study of African art and the decline it underwent as a result of its contact with Western civilization. Marker’s characteristically witty and thoughtful commentary is combined with images of a stark formal beauty.’ Harvard Film Archive
Sat 17 Nov 12 noon (with Description of a Struggle) / Cinema A

The Astronauts (Les Astronautes) 1959 Ages 15+
16MM, 14 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / W/ WALERIAN BOROWCZYK
‘An inventor constructs a spaceship out of odd pieces of wood and newspaper; he launches it from the roof of his house after having filled it with his most treasured bric-a-brac. The inventor is a delightfully eccentric figure, a homely dreamer quite out of place in the space age; Kafka’s archetypical little man thrust into the fairytale world of outer space, reminiscent of Méliès’s Le Voyage dans la Lune. With its mixture of poetry and burlesque, this is a masterpiece of surrealist incongruity.’ Monthly Film Bulletin
Wed 7 Nov 4.30pm (with La Jetée) / Cinem A
Fri 9 Nov 6.00pm (with La Jetée) / Cinema A

Description of a Struggle (Description d’un Combat) 1960 Ages 15+
16MM, 60 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, ISRAEL/FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
‘For this French writer-director, ex-American soldier, born in Mongolia, nothing on Earth is foreign. Following his trip to Siberia, Marker’s Palestinian film could have been called Letter from Tel Aviv . . . Marker’s aesthetic premise is based on his ability to look closely at whatever happens to fall within his field of view. He’s not looking for the unusual but takes hold of the everyday, doesn’t provoke the exceptional but waits for it patiently . . . Marker’s eye is fertile.’ Roger Tailleur, 1961
Sat 17 Nov 12 noon (with Statues Also Die) / Cinema A

La Jetée 1962 Ages 15+
16MM, 28 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, GERMAN, SUBTITLED
A ‘photo-novel’ made up of still images, La Jetée is Chris Marker’s cult science fiction masterpiece. After the next atomic war, a man subjected to scientific experimentation is sent through time to find the secret of humanity’s survival. Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys 1995 was inspired by La Jetée.
Wed 7 Nov 4.30pm (with The Astronauts) / Cinem A
Fri 9 Nov 6.00pm (with The Astronauts) / Cinema A

The Lovely Month of May (Le Joli Mai) 1963 Ages 15+
16MM, 165 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, LIVE SUBTITLING / PRINT SOURCE: NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE, CANBERRA
‘This grand-scale, beautifully photographed study of Paris and its people during the month that marked the end of the Algerian War presents interviews with an assortment of citizens and then broadens out to consider the physical setting and political context in which they live. The film has been compared to Jean Rouch’s cinéma vérité classic, Chronicle of a Summer, made the year before.’ Harvard Film Archive
Wed 12 Sep 6.00pm / Cinema A

CHRIS MARKER et al.

Far from Vietnam (Loin du Vietnam) 1967 Ages 15+
35MM, 115 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, FRANCE/USA, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / J IVENS, W KLEIN, C LELOUCH, C MARKER, A RESNAIS, A VARDA, J-L GODARD
‘Seven of France’s leading directors contributed to this essay-film, assembled by Chris Marker, “to assert sympathy with the Vietnamese people fighting against aggression — namely, the USA, waging a rich man’s war.” All the film, whether shot in Hanoi, Saigon, or Cuba, faces the question: How do we in Europe, in Paris, in the United States, live our lives in the context of this war?’ Cinémathèque Ontario
Sat 17 Nov 2.30pm / Cinema A

JEAN-PIERRE MELVILLE (1917–1973)
See New Wave Paris for Bob le Flambeur 1956.

JEAN-PIERRE MOCKY (b.1929)
See New Wave Paris for The Chasers 1959.

A Couple (Un Couple) 1960 Ages 15+
35MM, 85 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
‘Jean-Pierre Mocky’s second film sets out to portray the futility of personal relationships, this time between a married couple who have apparently, at one time, been suited to each other. The tone is a far cry from French nihilism . . . Mocky observes his couple with talent, with genuine responsibility towards their emotions; there is both intimacy and tenderness.’ Monthly Film Bulletin, 1961
Sun 11 Nov 2.30pm / Cinema A

ALAIN RESNAIS (b.1922)

Guernica 1950 Ages 15+
16MM, 13 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, LIVE SUBTITLING / W/ ROBERT HESSENS / PRINT SOURCE: NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE, CANBERRA
‘Resnais made a number of creative documentaries on art in the late 1940s. This small but powerful film opens with a photograph of the destroyed town of Guernica, a casualty of the Spanish Civil War, and uses fragments of Picasso’s epic painting, together with other works by the artist and a passionate poetic text by Paul Éluard, to create a moving protest against war and a hymn to the possibilities of humanity. Characteristic elements of Resnais’s style are already in evidence in this early work: the use of editing to project a new vision of reality and the subtle and surprising interplay of images with a literary text.’ Harvard Film Archive
Sun 9 Sep 2.00pm (with Night and Fog + Hiroshima Mon Amour) / Cinema A

Night and Fog (Nuit et Brouillard) 1955 Ages 15+
16MM, 32 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
Alain Resnais’s ground-breaking documentary juxtaposes stills from the end of the war with contemporary colour footage of the remains of the concentration camps and points to the impossibility of representing the Holocaust. Written and narrated by former inmate Jean Cayrol, with a haunting score by Hanns Eisler, Night and Fog is as much about memory and responsibility as the reality of the camps. MC
Sun 9 Sep 2.00pm (with Guernica + Hiroshima Mon Amour) / Cinema A

Hiroshima Mon Amour 1959 Ages 15+
35MM, 90 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE/JAPAN, FRENCH/JAPANESE, SUBTITLED
‘Resnais’s first feature film is greatly indebted to Marguerite Duras’s screenplay and is considered one of the finest films of the early French New Wave. Using a radically novel approach to expressing temporality through associative cuts that bridge the past and the present, Resnais presents the subjective point of view of a French woman who, haunted by her past during the war and filming an historical recreation of the atomic blast in Hiroshima, falls in love with a Japanese man.’ Harvard Film Archive
Sun 9 Sep 2.00pm (with Guernica + Night and Fog) / Cinema A

Last Year at Marienbad (L’Année Dernière à Marienbad) 1961 Ages 15+
35MM, 100 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
In a vast baroque mansion a man tries to convince a woman that they had an affair the year before, despite a succession of defeats every time her husband appears. Rejecting chronology, Alain Resnais’s mingling of memory and imagination, past and present, is one of cinema’s most haunting and erotic poems. The cryptic ciné-roman (photo-novel) by Alain Robbe-Grillet, the organ music and Sacha Vierny’s precise, luminous compositions are all unforgettable. MC
Thu 27 Sep 12 noon / Cinema A

Muriel, or the Time of Return (Muriel, ou le Temps d’un Retour) 1963 Ages 18+
16MM, 115 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, FRANCE/ITALY, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
In this follow-up to Last Year at Marienbad, Hélène invites her lover of 20 years earlier to stay with her. Muriel features rhythmic dialogue and overlapping sound, visionary use of colour and a fragmented, prismatic narrative. Hans Werner Henze’s ethereal modernist score complements Sacha Vierny’s crisp cinematography. MC
Sun 18 Nov 12 noon / Cinema A

The War Is Over (La Guerre est Finie) 1966 Ages 15+
35MM, 121 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, FRANCE/SWEDEN, FRENCH, LIVE SUBTITLING
‘One of Resnais’s most stylistically accessible and politically committed films, La Guerre est finie tells of an aging Spanish leftist who travels between Paris and Spain as part of a clandestine group dedicated to the overthrow of the Franco regime. Emotionally torn between his long-established mistress and a young student and challenged by younger revolutionaries to realize that the center of the political struggle has moved away from him, he is forced to make choices about his life and his political ideals.’ Harvard Film Archive
Sun 18 Nov 2.30pm / Cinema A

JACQUES RIVETTE (b.1928)
See New Wave Paris for Le Coup du Berger 1956, Paris Belongs to Us 1958; and May ’68 for Out 1: Noli me Tangere 1971.

The Nun (La Religieuse) 1965 Ages 15+
35MM, 135 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
‘Based on the acclaimed eighteenth-century novel by Enlightenment philosopher Denis Diderot, Rivette’s second feature stars Anna Karina as Suzanne Simonin, a free-spirited young woman who is forced by her parents to enter a convent. Within this cloistered world she encounters church leaders who abuse their positions of power and others who question their calling to serve their faith.’ Harvard Film Archive
Sat 13 Oct 2.00pm / Cinema A

Mad Love (L’Amour Fou) 1967 Ages 15+
16MM/35MM, 252 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
‘A study of disintegrating personal relationships, L’Amour Fou focuses on a theater group preparing to stage Racine’s Andromaque while being filmed by a television crew. During the rehearsal, the play’s director replaces his wife in the lead with his former mistress. The film, shot in both 16mm and 35mm, was developed from ideas of the cast and technicians and improvised during filming. Its extreme length is integral to its meaning and texture.’ Harvard Film Archive
Sun 14 Oct 12.30pm / Cinema A
Thu 1 Nov 12 noon / Cinema A

ERIC ROHMER (b.1920)
See New Wave Paris for The Sign of Leo 1959, The Baker of Monceau 1962.

Suzanne’s Career (La Carrière de Suzanne) 1963 Ages 18+
16MM, 54 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
Two hapless university students meet Suzanne, a young career woman, in a café. One of the boys begins a mean-spirited relationship with her while the other, more timid boy observes, recounting his misguided comprehension of the situation in voiceover. Things get more complicated when Suzanne takes charge of the game. The second of Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales succinctly reveals the gap between intentions and actions. MC
Sat 27 Oct 2.30pm (with The Baker of Monceau + Nadja à Paris) / Cinema A

Nadja à Paris 1964 Ages 18+
16MM, 13 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, LIVE SUBTITLING
A young Yugoslavian–American student recounts her first impressions of Paris, particularly the bohemian lifestyle and history of the Left Bank. Nadja à Paris is the first of many film collaborations between director Eric Rohmer and cinematographer Nestor Almendros. MC
Sat 27 Oct 2.30pm (with The Baker of Monceau + Suzanne’s Career) / Cinema A

La Collectionneuse 1967 Ages 15+
16MM, 89 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, LIVE SUBTITLING
‘La Collectionneuse is Haydée, a sweetly free-and-easy girl who sleeps with a different boy every night and, in a summery St Tropez villa, causes some disarray in two men who feel that it is their duty to resist being added to her collection. The literary reference behind their machinations is Choderlos de Laclos (Les Liaisons Dangereuses), demonstrating the emotional sterility of the thinking man’s dandyism when faced with the simplicity of instinct (as advocated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau).’ National Film Theatre
Wed 31 Oct 4.00pm / Cinema B

My Night with Maud (Ma Nuit chez Maud) 1969 Ages 18+
35MM, 110 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
Jean-Louis Trintignant plays a Catholic engineer smug in his beliefs who has his faith, morality and ideas of love tested by a meeting with an attractive, free-spirited and seductively argumentative divorcee. Regarded as Rohmer’s masterpiece, this sophisticated and philosophical third entry in the Six Moral Tales was undoubtedly his breakthrough film and one of the emblematic works of 1960s French cinema. MC
Wed 31 Oct 6.00pm / Cinema B

JEAN ROUCH (1917–2004)
See New Wave Paris for The Punishment 1962, The 15 Year Old Widows 1966; and May ’68 for Dionysos 1984.

Jaguar 1954–67 Ages 15+
16MM, 110 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / PRINT SOURCE: NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE, CANBERRA
‘Jaguar’ was the name given to fashionable men on the make in 1950s and 1960s West Africa. Rouch’s fictionalised documentary about seasonal migration from Niger to the Gold Coast (Ghana) follows Illo, a fisherman, Lam, a shepherd, and the charming Damouré, who improvise roles as would-be ‘jaguars’.
Sun 9 Sep 11.00am / Cinema A

Moi, un Noir (I, a Black) 1959 Ages 15+
16MM, 70 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, LIVE SUBTITLING
Oumarou Ganda plays Edward G Robinson, a young émigré from Niger to the Ivory Coast, in this energetic, slice-of-life film that combines documentary and drama. The use of hand-held camera and improvised acting and narration influenced Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless.
Sat 1 Sep 12 noon / Cinema A

Chronicle of a Summer (Chronique d’un Été) 1960–61 Ages 15+
16MM, 85 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / W/ EDGAR MORIN
Shot in 16mm with a new system of synchronised sound recording, Chronicle of a Summer takes the temperature of Paris in the summer of 1960, as the war in Algeria seemed to be drawing to a close, through the eyes of a disparate cast of characters.
Wed 12 Sep 4.00pm / Cinema A

JACQUES ROZIER (b.1926)
See New Wave Paris for The 400 Blows 1959, Antoine and Collette 1962.

Adieu Philippine 1962 Ages 15+
35MM, 106 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE/ITALY, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
‘Jacques Rozier’s first film, Adieu Philippine, is the clearest success of this new cinema where spontaneity is all the more powerful when it is the result of long and careful work . . . Its poetry could not emerge clearly from looking at rushes; it arises from any number of perfect harmonies between images and words, sounds and music . . .’ François Truffaut, 1963
Sat 10 Nov 12 noon / Cinema A

FRANÇOIS TRUFFAUT (1932–1984)
See New Wave Paris for The 400 Blows 1959, Antoine et Collette 1962.

The Misfits (Les Mistons) 1957 Ages 15+
16MM, 18 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / PRINT SOURCE: NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE, CANBERRA
A group of teenage boys — the ‘misfits’ of the title — spend their summer pursuing Bernadette, the object of their adolescent obsession. Truffaut’s impressive début saw him switch from theory to practice in a nostalgic short film about male sexual awakening in 1950s provincial France, with nods to the Lumière brothers and to Jean Cocteau. JH
Sun 2 Sep 12.30pm (with The Lovers) / Cinema A

Shoot the Pianist (Tirez Sur le Pianiste) 1960 Ages 15+
35MM, 92 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
Film noir meets melodrama in Truffaut’s adaptation of David Goodis’s novel. Iconic singer Charles Aznavour plays Charlie, a former classical pianist whose life is turned upside down following his wife’s suicide. Charlie plays piano in a Paris bar and tries to rebuild his life through his relationship with waitress Léna while being drawn into the world of his small-time gangster brothers. JH
Fri 21 Sep 6.00pm / Cinema A
Sat 6 Oct 12 noon / Cinema A

Jules et Jim 1962 Ages 15+
35MM, 105 MINS, B. & W., FRANCE, FRENCH, GERMAN, ENGLISH, SUBTITLED
Best friends, virile Frenchman Jules and introspective German Jim, fall for the enigmatic Catherine. Jules marries her before World War One, separating the two friends. The three reconnect after the armistice, developing a ménage à trois, which will last years before drawing to its tragic conclusion. JH
Fri 21 Sep 8.00pm / Cinema A
Sat 6 Oct 2.00pm / Cinema A

The Soft Skin (La Peau Douce) 1964 Ages 15+
16MM, 113 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE/PORTUGAL, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
Married academic Pierre falls for air hostess Brigitte en route to Lisbon where he is giving a lecture on Balzac. An affair ensues when Pierre meets Brigitte in Paris and takes her to Reims on a business trip. When Pierre’s wife Nicole discovers the affair, Pierre seeks a divorce but Nicole refuses, with the impasse leading to an abrupt and shocking finale. JH
Sun 23 Sep 12.30pm / Cinema A

Fahrenheit 451 1966 Ages 15+
35MM, 112 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, UK, ENGLISH
Fahrenheit 451 is Truffaut’s troubling adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s science fiction landmark. In a futuristic society where books have been banned, fire officer Montag — in charge of enforcing book burning — meets Clarisse who resembles his wife Linda. Unlike conformist Linda, however, Clarisse questions society’s conventions, and her influence leads Montag to secretly read books himself. JH
Fri 9 Nov 8.00pm / Cinema A

Stolen Kisses (Baisers Volés) 1968 PG
35MM, 90 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
The third in Truffaut’s semi-autobiographical Antoine Doinel cycle, Stolen Kisses sees eternal adolescent Antoine leave military prison to reconnect with the prim Christine. Antoine embarks on a series of jobs, notably as a detective hired by a shoe shop proprietor to discover whether his wife, the enigmatic Fabienne Tabard, is having an affair. Naturally, Antoine falls for Fabienne, who comes to play an important role in his sentimental education. JH
Sun 23 Sep 3.00pm (with Antoine and Collette) / Cinema A

The Short Point (La Pointe Courte) 1954 Ages 15+
35MM, 89 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
Photographer Agnès Varda one-upped her New Wave contemporaries, making her first feature five years before the appearance of classics Breathless and The 400 Blows. The Short Point recounts the story of a young married couple on the point of separating. The man returns to his childhood home, a fishing village near Sète, where his wife joins him. The film bears Varda’s trademarks: simplicity, honesty and beauty at the borders of fiction and documentary. JH
Wed 5 Sep 4.00pm (with L’Opéra-Mouffe) / Cinema A

L’Opéra-Mouffe 1958 Ages 15+
16MM, 16 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
A sensual, subjective diary of life in Paris’s iconic rue Mouffetard — the winding cobble-stoned street bustling with shoppers and open air markets — as experienced by a young, pregnant woman. Varda (expecting a child herself at the time) spent several days perched above the street with her camera, blending in with her surrounds, to bring to life the fresh sensations of the district in this neo-realist reflection on life and nature in urban settings. JH
Wed 5 Sep 4.00pm (with The Short Point) / Cinema A

The Riviera — Today’s Eden (Du Côté de la Côte) 1958 Ages 15+
35MM, 25 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
Varda’s irreverent documentary on the French Riviera is all the more remarkable for being commissioned by the French Tourist Office. Varda’s love of nature, the colourful, and the absurd are all rendered with a detached humour through the marriage of striking, singular images and witty commentary. An ode to the quest for an illusory Eden, Varda’s film is an original and fascinating essay on tourism. JH
Thu 15 Nov 12 noon (with Bay of Angels) / Cinema A

Salut les Cubains 1963 Ages 15+
35MM, 30 MINS, B. & W., MONO, FRANCE/CUBA, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
Varda created this period gem from the 1800 photographs she took in Cuba, adding her commentary on Castro, socialism, modern life and music.
Thu 20 Sep 12 noon (with Happiness + Black Panthers) / Cinema A

Happiness (Le Bonheur) 1964 Ages 15+
35MM, 79 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED
Young carpenter François, his wife Claire and their children live an idyllic lifestyle close to nature just outside of Paris. One day, François meets postal worker Emilie who, in many ways, resembles his wife. Rather than hide the affair, François tells Claire about it, explaining that it adds ‘happiness to happiness’. Varda surprises with this highly original and gently parodic portrait of marriage and relationships set to the joyous strains of Mozart. JH
Thu 20 Sep 12 noon (with Salut les Cubains + Black Panthers) / Cinema A

Black Panthers (Huey) 1968 Ages 15+
35MM, 47 MINS, B. & W., MONO, USA, ENGLISH
This riveting film made for French television about the Black Panther movement documents one of the many rallies held in solidarity with Huey Newton, one of the Panthers’ founders arrested for the alleged murder of a police officer. This film is a monument to the hope and enthusiasm embodied by the movement in turbulent 1960s America. JH
Thu 20 Sep 12 noon (with Salut les Cubains + Happiness) / Cinema A

Breathless: French New Wave Turns 50 curated by Kathryn Weir (Australian Cinémathèque), with film notes compiled and written by Michelle Carey (MC), Joe Hardwick (JH) and Kathryn Weir.

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BREATHLESS: FRENCH NEW WAVE TURNS 50

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