Waking my partner up from a nap, he was in no particularly excitable mood to go and see a film inspired by the making of another film which he had never seen, full of French cinema giants whom he was not familiar with. Less than two hours later, he turned to me, eyes bright and smile wide, exclaiming “movie of the year!”. While I'm not ready to go quite as far, I can't deny the grin I had throughout the entire thing.
Despite not speaking a lick of French, Linklater’s film is jovial and humorous and bears the mark of minimal directing (or at least as if it would like to come across this way), reflecting Godard's approach to making Breathless. Though not entirely accurate, for audiences who aren’t familiar with the directors featured, the whole thing comes across as a fun look into a philosophical and idealistic life lived by cinephiles in 1950s France.
Everyone plays their part brilliantly.
The film was primarily shot on digital and though the infrequent cigarette burns on the 'film' that pop up feel a little awkward, overall the film does a good job at capturing the free and youthful aesthetic the New Wave is famous for. Undoubtedly, this is aided by the majority of the cast not having acted before, a core characteristic of the movement. Everyone plays their part brilliantly. Godard (Guillaume Marbeck) comes across as a frustrating but ultimately likeable director. Zoey Deutch and Aubry Dullin look strikingly similar to their parts of Jean Seburg and Jean-Paul Belmondo respectively.
Additionally, the film's documentary-style ending comes across as a little gimmicky though does provide some nice context for less clued-up viewers.
Biopics seem to be in at the moment, especially when it comes to vying for critical acclaim. Though it's going largely unrecognised, could Nouvelle Vague perhaps prompt a wave of biopic-type films focused on influential film movements of the past and their creators? It's like Godard himself said, 'never see a good movie for the first time on television'.