Breathless

A group of French filmmakers criticized films in the film industry. For instance, they started coined the blank and white crime thriller film as film noir. Thence, in the late 1950's and 1960's, the French New Wave is also a term coined by them as well. They revolutionized cinematic conventions by merging the fast cuts of Hollywood with philosophical trends (Parnell, n.d.). One of the critics was Jean-Luc Godard, who filmed Breathless which started the French New Wave movement in 1959.

Before 1950’s and 1960’s, French films were generally literary adaptation which the films were normally made based on books, novels, fictional tales, etc. These films were filmed within the studio system. However, after World War II, filmmakers started making films about the context of troubles of post-World War II which presented as a documentary style. Many French filmmakers made documentaries of Nazi death camps. Other than that, cinema verite which means cinema truth were also made through real documentary with no interruption in the filming (Hayward, 2013). For instance, they filmed a man’s 1 day of his life as a trash man without interrupted.

In the 1951, Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut started writing about philosophy of making movies and film noirs which was published in the Cahiers Du Cinema magazine. Before becoming a critic, Jean-Luc Godard was a director of his significant film, Breathless, which was produced in a low budget but accepted by the public. Therefore, he and his colleagues were absorbed into studio system with budget provided to make new films. However, they didn’t get to practice what they used to do in films anymore, hence, films of French New Wave were getting decreased, and they were then turned to academic and criticism and become critics and theorists, as they unable to get into the French commercial cinema (New Wave Film, n.d.).

Breathless follows the romance between Michel who is a murderer on the run and Patricia who is an American girl set within the urban Paris streets. Michel attempts to persuade Patricia to run away with him to Italy. However, Patricia betrays him by revealing his location to an inspector. 

Personal authorship is important as a branding for directors. Their signature personality, the way of visual, type of theme were shown in each successive film. Besides, they rejected tradition filmmaking which rely on linear tropes of storytelling and dialogues. Godard developed own film that generally rejected by tradition films which caused them did not get funded by studio. Due to the low budget issue, the inconstant composition while shooting a film became his style as well as the jump cuts (Parnell, n.d.). For instance, when Patricia is sitting in the car, the scenes outside the car keep on changing as in they have passed different places. 

Next, they took audiences to look at mise-en-scene, they made visual as the main thing instead of transferring script into a movie. Godard and friends rejected the montage aesthetics and strong editing in making a film. In another words, they favored mise-en-scene as what is within the visual. They believed a film must include emotion and psychological experiences instead of to be just intellectual or rational experiences. The filming techniques included fragmented, discontinuous editing, and long takes (Johnson, 2015). For example, the long takes shot while Michel and Patricia are having conversation on the street, the camera just followed their movement while the scenes behind are changing. Besides, unlike tradition Hollywood films which actors weren't allowed to look directly into cameras, Godard filmed Michel who speaks to audiences and himself through camera while he is driving on the road. 

Additionally, Besides, Godard filmed with available light only and exhibited direct sounds while shooting (Darke, n.d.). For example, while Michel and Patricia are having conversation in the room, we can hear the ambulance siren passes by twice. Next, unlike the film noirs, Godard usually show strong female archetypes. For instance, Patricia who doesn’t depend on men and she comes to France herself. Although she is engaged in a criminal case, she joins Michel stealing car, however, she betrays him as well by revealing his location to an inspector. A strong woman is able to practice choices and make decision herself. In the Breathless, we can see Michel objectifies Patricia as an object, he seduces her and persuade her to leave with him to Italy. Unlike traditional women who were portrayed obedient, couldn't be ambitious, weren't allowed to work and get educated, Patricia has her own job in France as a student and aspiring journalist, she also sells newspaper on the street to feed herself. 

The French New Wave ended in 1969. Studios hired and absorbed French New Wave directors. As they were under studio system, the form of films embedded into the mainstream. However, only Godard who continued to develop his style of making films. There was when French New Wave films slowly ended. 

Bicycle Thieves

          Italian cinema during pre-war period, films were used as propaganda, a form of brainwashing for political benefits, which this set of films were brought from places to places to educate the peoples. The films were generally documentaries and newsreels. However, Italian Neorealism began in Italy after World War II. It is a style of film with promoting only a good image of Italy during the period of fascist government's control. The government restricted that crime and immorality should not be produced, the films content produced should be divorced from reality. Therefore, the films produced were normally melodramas which combine music as in melody and dramatic narration films. Nonetheless, the fall of fascism created the style of film characterized by stories of the working class and postwar poverty. The best-known example is the Bicycle Thieves by De Sica in 1948 (Hayward, 2013). 

          The neorealist movement began during the postwar period as a response to the political turmoil and unstable economic conditions which were affecting the country. The main exponents of the movement are Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica. These directors took up cameras to tell stories on the lower-classes people and their concerns which the filmmakers projected a slice of their life to reflect on the conditions of social reality. These films regularly show contemporary social realism as in what is it happening now, the present, today and at the current moment. Hence, filmmakers had abolished plot and narration that normally used in films. 

          Other than that, Italian neorealism films encouraged the sense of realism through using the real life people as actors who also known as the everyday actors / social actors. Non-professional actors are preferred as filmmakers believe that they are different from those professional actors who are already well trained. The filmmakers’ faith in non-professional actors will be more likely to establish the real expression without any ‘acting’ elements. Next, natural dialogue and language were used to enhance the realism too. On-location shooting was preferably suggested rather than studio work to establish the grainy kind of visual and realistic look to enhance realism. 

          Besides, Neorealism films were basically produced in documentary style and shot in natural light. Additionally, long takes camera shot which is 1 long shot with 20 seconds and above normally used in the films too. Long takes in a film which audiences are forced to watch at the same scene or location. They started looking at the surrounding of the scene and appreciate that (Hayward, 2013).

          During the postwar in Rome, a poor father is offered a new job but he needs a bicycle for work. His wife pawns the family’s entire bed linen for him to redeem a bicycle that has been pawned however the bicycle is stolen on his first day of work. He brings along his little son to look for the bicycle on the streets of Rome. They go to the street, the crowded market, a church where they could see the scenes of poverty similar to theirs.

          The neorealism film: Bicycle Thieves meets all the components mentioned above. It projects a slice of Antonio and his family’s poverty life during the postwar period. It is shown on the first scene where everyone queues and gathers around to fight for a job to maintain their life. When there is a new job offered which needs a bicycle for work, everyone cries out saying they have a bicycle hope to get the job. 

          Next, it shows the social reality which is the poverty, the effects of the war on the economy and the unemployment of the people. When Antonio eventually gets the job, in order to work with a bicycle, his wife, Maria pawns all of their bed linens to redeem his bicycle which has been pawned. The poverty social life is shown at the scene where Antonio redeems his bicycle at the office, we can see a lot of people are queuing up at the back waiting for their turn to pawn and redeem stuffs, as well as the tall shelves full with other people’s bed sheets that have been pawned, even the worker needs to climb up a ladder to stack up the bed linens. 

          Furthermore, the non-professional actors are used in this film too, however, there is only one professional actor in the entire film, the man who is standing at the staircases giving out jobs for the people. 

           Moreover, the real location shooting in this film is shot at the post-war area which creates the grainy visual to emphasize the people’s suffering. That location is when the wife, Maria and a group of women are pulling water from a well. We can see the combination of new and old collapsed buildings in the films and the roads are not well repaired. With the outdoor real life scene location, lastly, this neorealism film is also shot in natural light as well.

           Bicycle Thieve is an impactful and brilliant neorealism film. I like how it ends with the dispirited father and the son walking in the crowd, who have no idea where the bicycle is.