"Any time a notable figure of the French New Wave is introduced in Richard Linklater's Nouvelle Vague, we're treated to a momentary straight-on shot of them, with a nameplate - Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette, Éric Rohmer - at the bottom of the screen. It's a little like Linklater, as he goes, is cataloging different species of the same 1950s genus, or playing a grand game of New Wave "Guess Who?""
"To a remarkable degree, Linklater's film, in French and boxed into the Academy ratio, black-and-white style of Breathless, has fully imbibed that spirit, resurrecting one of the most hallowed eras of movies to capture an iconoclast in the making. The result is something endlessly stylish and almost absurdly uncanny, even if Nouvelle Vague never adopts the brash daring of its subject."
"Confidence is not lacking in Godard. (Marbeck, excellent, doesn't take off his sunglasses for the duration of the movie, including in movie screenings.) On the heels of the Cannes reception for The 400 Blows, the producer Georges de Beauregard (Bruno Dreyfürst, tremendous) agrees to make Breathless. Beauregard warily eyes Godard, likely aware of the trouble he's making for himself. He pleads for Godard to just make a sexy "slice of film noir.""
Richard Linklater's Nouvelle Vague recreates the French New Wave through French dialogue, Academy ratio framing and black-and-white imagery that evoke Breathless. The film punctuates introductions to filmmakers with straight-on nameplate shots, presenting figures such as Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and Éric Rohmer. The narrative follows Jean-Luc Godard as he capitalizes on Cannes momentum after The 400 Blows, persuades producer Georges de Beauregard to back Breathless and resists conventional noir expectations. Godard consults European masters, borrows from eclectic influences and pursues rapid, idea-driven shooting. The result is a stylish, uncanny portrait of an iconoclast in formation that mirrors but does not fully match Breathless's daring.
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