“Nouvelle Vague”, interview with director Richard Linklater

After reaching the highest number of wins for direction,  cinematography, editing and costumes at the César awards, “Nouvelle Vague” by Richard Linklater, which reconstructs the birth of the legendary movement finally lands Italian cinemas, distributed by both Lucky Red and BIM, after successfully participating to Rome Film Festival.

When the Texan director  arrived at the Cannes Film Festival last year, in competition, with a film about the Nouvelle Vague (hence the title) and about the genesis of a monumental work such as Jean-Luc Godard‘s “Breathless“, many spoke of audacity and courage.

Making a film in French about a movement that effectively defined the cinematography of an entire country was indeed a challenge that Linklater pulled off successfully. The secret? Making it for fans like himself.

The best version of the film

“This is not about remaking ‘‘Breathless’’, but looking at it from another angle. I want to dive into 1959 with my camera and recreate the era, the people, the atmosphere. I want to hang out with the New Wave crowd”. With this thought in mind, Richard Linklater first imagined Nouvelle Vague almost 13 years ago.

His intent was to make the dream of living that 1959 New wave atmosphere as he had pictured it the first time he watched a Godard film.

“I saw this film in my head, this black and white film about from 1959 and yes, that’s the best version of what I was hoping for.” Richard Linklater tells us at the Rome Film Festival where he received a Career Award.

Jean-Luc Godard

Richard Linklater was ready to shoot the film already 10 years ago but then it didn’t happen. In the meantime, Jean-Luc Godard died.

Jean-Luc Godard was always known for never having particularly welcomed films about himself and his life. His reaction to Michel Hazanavicius’s “Redoubtable – Godard Mon Amour” was far from positive. Richard Linklater, however, admits he would have liked Godard to have seen the film. He loved being celebrated, especially by Americans, and perhaps, secretly, he would have taken pleasure in seeing himself through the eyes of an American director.

Nouvelle Vague around the world

At the Cannes Film Festival, Cannes during his film’s press conference, a member from the press thanked Richard Linklater for having the audacity to make a French film as an American.

Was it audacity? The director of Boyhood elaborates: “I know on paper it sounds a little crazy: an American going to make a French film, but I felt it was my film to make because I wanted to make what the Nouvelle Vague looked like to people around the world”.

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