Nouvelle Vague

Welcome to the time machine, destination: the coolest corners of Paris in 1959.

The Cahiers du Cinema office is bursting with activity. Claude Chabrol had already directed two feature films. François Truffaut was about to leave for Cannes for the release of his first film, The 400 Blows. Godard embezzles money for travel from the magazine’s coffers and joins him on the trip. Everyone is aware that something new is about to happen.

Godard simply must direct a film himself. It is easily done: just fool a producer into joining the project and convince Jean Seberg (Zoey Deutch) to become the glowing female lead. Belmondo was born to play the criminal. In the mornings, at the coffeehouse, he invents a few lines of the screenplay, and then they film for an hour, or a whole day. Trust the process, and eventually there will be a film to show. In minor parts, we get glimpses of characters such as Robert Bresson, Jean-Pierre Melville, and Roberto Rossellini.

All of this is both historically accurate and simultaneously invented. Richard Linklater, at the peak of his powers, masterfully captures the immediacy of the process that took place both in front as well as behind the camera. And during the filming breaks, which there were plenty of.

Guillaume Marbeck is a strangely perfect Godard. If we got to see his eyes, we might be able to tell that we are looking at an actor, but the dark glasses stay on. Style above all else. Even his voice creaks just like Godard’s. A legend is alive, and everyone is having fun. This is truly an ode to the joy of cinema.

Mika Siltala (translated by Herman Tikkanen)