This series celebrates the French new wave, an explosion of innovative films that transformed cinema with their audacious style and enduring spirit of cool.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, critics railed against the stuffy period pieces that dominated French screens. Down with la tradition de qualité (‘the tradition of quality’)! Out with le cinéma du papa (‘dad’s cinema’)! Young firebrands broke the rules of conventional filmmaking, embracing on-location shoots, improvised dialogue and freewheeling experimentation. The nouvelle vague was born.
Enter a world of movie-crazed gangsters, doomed lovers and flâneuse in this brief survey of one of modern cinema’s most influential movements. From the streets of Paris (Breathless, Jules and Jim) to a Technicolor coastal town (The umbrellas of Cherbourg), the series brings together iconic classics with lesser-known films by directors such as Jacques Rozier and Liliane de Kermadec.
Art Gallery Road Australia
