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THE
TOP 5
PROJECT

WEEK NO. 34
Main Page (including links to all past Top 5 weeks)

THE TOP 5 NOUVELLE VAGUE:

view full results       see how points are awarded
Rank Film Points L #1
#1 À bout de souffle (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) 42 14 3
#2 Les Quatre cents coups (François Truffaut, 1959) 37 10 3
#3 Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, 1961) 34 11 2
#4 Le Mépris (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963) 27 8 1
#5 Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965) 13 4 1
L=How many lists each film appears on             #1=How many number one votes each film recieves

Even though many figures have been associated with the Nouvelle Vague, some rightfully so, some not, it is the two most highly visible, M. Truffaut and M. Godard that make the grade. This week's top 5 consists of only two auteurs. Godard's À bout de souffle coming out on top with 42 points, followed by compatriot Truffaut's Les Quatre cents coups with 37 points, just beating out his own Jules et Jim with 34. After that comes JLG again, with Le Mépris getting 27 points and his Pierrot le fou garnering a somewhat distant 13 points. Close runners-up included Hiroshima mon amour, Shoot the Pianist, Cleo from 5 to 7 and Celine & Julie Go Boating.

Individual lists:

Albert H. Muth
Auteurophile

  1. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)

  2. Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, 1962)

  3. Pierrot le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)

  4. Weekend (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)

  5. 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959)



David Sterritt
Chairman, National Society of Film Critics

Ranked. Choices based on the premise that Godard, Truffaut, Rohmer, Chabrol, and Rivette are the core New Wave members, excluding other filmmakers placed in the group by some critics; choices also based on the premise that a film by a New Wave director made after the group's "classical" period (i.e., Rohmer in 1992) qualifies as a NW film, at least if it partakes of traditional NW values. (As you can tell, I consider "New Wave Films" to be a problematic category.)

  1. Out 1: Spectre (Jacques Rivette, 1972)

  2. Le Mépris (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)

  3. Conte d'hiver (Eric Rohmer, 1992)

  4. Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962)

  5. Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, 1962)



Carrie Rickey
Film Critic, Philadelphia Inquirer

  1. Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda, 1961)

  2. Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)

  3. The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959)

  4. Le Boucher (Claude Chabrol, 1970)

  5. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)



David Ehrenstein
Film Critic & Entertainment Writer
Author, Open Secret: Gay Hollywood 1928-1998

  1. Out 1, noli me tangere (Jacques Rivette, 1971) - Just saw it yesterday. The greatest triumph of the New Wave.

  2. Muriel ou Le temps d'un retour (Alain Resnais, 1963) - Ran less than a week when it premiered in New York in 1963.

  3. Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963) - Godard's absolute masterpiece.

  4. Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda, 1961) - The best film ever made about Paris, death and Pop music.

  5. The Mother and the Whore (Jean Eustache, 1973) - Why Jean-Pierre Leaud is great.



Jeffrey M. Anderson
Freelance Film Critic, Combustable Celluloid,
Las Vegas Weekly, The Metro (Silicon Valley), etc.

  1. Celine and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette, 1974)

  2. Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)

  3. À bout de souffle (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)

  4. Claire's Knee (Eric Rohmer, 1971)

  5. Shoot the Piano Player (Francois Truffaut, 1960)

Runners up: The 400 Blows, Le Boucher, Band of Outsiders, La Belle Noiseuse, La Ceremonie, Vivre sa vie...


Christopher Null
Founder, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Filmcritic.com

  1. Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)

  2. Jules et Jim (Francois Truffaut, 1962)

  3. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)

  4. Bob le Flambeur (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1956)

  5. This Man Must Die (Claude Chabrol, 1969)



Dennis Schwartz
Film Critic Ozu's World Movie Reviews

  1. La Jetee (Chris Marker, 1962)

  2. La Belle Noiseuse (Jacques Rivette, 1991)

  3. Jules et Jim (Francois Truffaut, 1962)

  4. Lola (Jacques Demy, 1960)

  5. Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961)



Michael Parent
Film Student

I would like to take the time to remember the great memory of Ingmar Bergman who just past away one week ago. I think he was one of the most versatile directors and his career was one of the most important in the seventh Art. I would like to name a few of his films, well my favourites; The Seventh Seal, Persona, Wild Strawberries, Cries and Whispers and Saraband. (Well, I propose a Top 5 of Bergman’s Films for next week.)

  1. Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, 1962)

  2. Les 400 coups (François Truffaut, 1959)

  3. Le Mépris (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)

  4. À Bout de Souffle (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)

  5. Zazie dans le Métro (Louis Malle, 1960)



Matt Severson
Film Enthusiast

  1. The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959)

  2. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)

  3. Hiroshima, Mon Amour (Alain Resnais, 1959)

  4. Jules et Jim (Francois Truffaut, 1969)

  5. Vivre sa Vie (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)

I wish we didn't have to limit these to Top 5 -- why not Top 10? That way I could also include: Cleo from 5 to 7, Last year in Marienbad, A Woman Is a Woman, Les Bonnes Femmes, Lola, Les Mepris, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and la Jetee.


Mathew Viola
Film Fanatic

  1. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) - Breathless is invariably the first film that leaps to mind whenever the subject of the French New Wave is broached, no doubt because it epitomizes the philosophy, aesthetic, and revolutionary spirit of the movement. With Breathless, Godard seemingly set out to break as many of the rules of conventional filmmaking as possible; I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he checked off a list of rules as he broke them one by one:

    • Replace glossy cinematography with raw natural lighting – Check
    • Replace polished studio sets with gritty location shooting – Check
    • Replace editing continuity with abrupt jump cuts – Check
    • Replace scripted dialogue with spontaneous improvisation - Check
    • Replace establishing and transition shots with disorienting ellipses in the action – Check
    • Replace smooth camerawork with shaky hand-held photography – Check
    • Replace coherent narratives and clear-cut resolutions with ambiguity and open-ended conclusions - Check
    Shouldn’t there be a law against breaking so many rules? Indeed, the real rebel of Breathless is not Belmondo’s Bogart-imitating antihero, but rather Godard himself, whose intentionally disruptive editing and camera styles, which deliberately call attention to themselves in order to constantly remind the viewer that he’s watching a movie, expose the illusion of reality created by the use of unobtrusive cinematic techniques in the conventional filmmaking process. In this way, Godard is rather like a magician revealing to his audience how a trick is performed.

    Though the plot of Breathless, involving a petty Parisian criminal hiding out with his American lover after he murders a cop, is hardly remarkable, Godard’s radical reworking of film form certainly is, and the result is a groundbreaking, utterly original masterwork that remains as exhilaratingly fresh and alive today as it must have been in 1960. Watching Breathless makes you feel the liberating joy of the iconoclastic artist who’s slipped the restrictions of convention.

  2. Shoot the Piano Player (Francois Truffaut, 1960) - The protagonist of Francois Truffaut’s sophomore feature is a genuine existential antihero: once a famous concert pianist named Edouard, he now tinkles ivory under the name of Charlie at a dingy honky tonk bar, having withdrawn from the world following his wife’s tragic suicide. His efforts to remain emotionally detached from those around him, a defense mechanism against the tragedies of life, fail when he not only reluctantly gets involved with his brother’s troubles with gangsters, but also falls in love with a beautiful girl from the honky tonk, a waitress, just as his wife was. As fate would have it, the gangsterous intrigues and his romance converge in the end, with tragic consequences, driving him right back to the anonymity of the honky tonk, as detached as ever.

    Torn between cutting himself off from the world and reconnecting with humanity, Charlie often vacillates between two opposing desires, with his conflicted, ambivalent nature manifesting itself in his tendency to think one thing, only to do another. This contradiction between his thoughts and his actions can be humorous, as is the case when he tells himself to kiss the girl he loves but doesn’t actually attempt it until she’s already left, or tragic, as is the case when he tells himself to go back and forgive his unfaithful, guilt-ridden wife, but leaves her instead, a decision which indirectly results in her suicide. Truffaut further reinforces the tragic duality of Charlie by giving him two different identities, by having him repeatedly look into mirrors, by having him fall in love with two different waitresses, and by placing him a circular narrative in which the past tragically repeats itself.

    Yet for all its downbeat fatalism, the film is also bursting with humor, romance, and the kind of cinematic razzmatazz associated with talented young filmmakers giddily exploring and playing with the medium’s rich visual possibilities. Thus Truffaut fills the screen with humorous, offbeat visual touches: the absurd shot of the trailing gangsters looking impossibly close in the girl’s compact mirror; the three irises at the left, middle and right of the screen, each one containing the same character; the cut to an old lady keeling over right after a lying character says, “May my mother drop dead if I’m not telling the truth.” Amusing moments like these, in which Truffaut deliberately reminds us that we’re watching a movie, may immediately precede or follow scenes of violent action, wistful romanticism or heartbreaking tragedy, resulting in bold shifts of tone. It’s a risky, audacious approach, especially for such a young and relatively inexperienced filmmaker, but Truffaut skillfully pulls it off, balancing all the disparate elements with the style and assurance of a master. This delirious blend of genres, with its stunning juxtaposition of playful comedy, moving romance, winking reflexivity and dark existential tragedy, may be Truffaut’s masterpiece.

  3. The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959) - The 400 Blows was not the first or the last film to deal with troubled youth, but its knowing, compassionate examination of the issue has never been surpassed. With understated, unsentimental power, the film demonstrates the process by which the 13 year old Antoine, who’s stuck with derelict, uncaring parents and unreasonably strict disciplinarian teachers, slides into delinquency. Even before Antoine is sent to detention school, he seems imprisoned, not only by the authority figures that are quick to punish and criticize but slow to guide and praise, but also by the very environment in which he exists, whether it’s his cramped living quarters, his overcrowded classrooms or the small hiding spots he finds as refuge. Is it any wonder he plays hooky and runs away from home in order to take to the streets, where at least he has some freedom from authority and space to move about?

    Alas, with no responsible party around to intervene in Antoine’s behalf, his situation soon spirals out of control: the more trouble he gets into at school, the worse things become at home, and the worse things become at home, the more trouble he gets into at school. He’s stuck in a vicious cycle of neglect and abuse, which spins him around faster and faster into ever-increasing degrees of trouble and desperation. (His life is like that spinning rotor ride he goes on). By the time he escapes from detention school and drifts aimlessly to the beach, Antoine has nowhere to run and nobody to turn to for help, which lends an incredibly palpable sense of confusion, alienation, helplessness and hopelessness to his sad plight. Finally, there’s that haunting final freeze frame on Antoine’s face, fixing him in a moment of time, stuck somewhere between the fraught past and an uncertain future.

  4. Pierrot Le Fou (Godard, 1965) and A Woman is a Woman (Godard, 1961) - I’m lumping these two Godard films together because one falls towards the beginning, the other towards the end of Godard’s Karina Period, which was by far the most creatively fertile time of his career. When he made A Woman is a Woman, he was about to marry the beautiful Karina and he must have been a very happy man, indeed. Who wouldn’t be? It’s probably no coincidence that A Woman is a Woman is the most upbeat, playful and accessible film he ever made. It’s an amusing lark, with a refreshing sense of spontaneity, as if things were being made up as they went along. Seemingly anything can happen, from self-conscious asides to the camera to lyrical musical interludes. Belmondo even runs headfirst into a brick wall in fast motion to prove his love for Karina! Pierrot Le Fou is stylistically similar in many ways, but is thematically a much darker and more substantial film. Perhaps its darker tone is a reflection of the couple’s imminent breakup, who knows? In any case, the film’s pessimistic vision of romantic relationships escalates from mere betrayal and disillusionment to murder and suicide. The final scene is unforgettable: The distraught Belmondo, having been heartlessly betrayed by Karina, wires himself up with dynamite, and proves that the world can end with both a bang and a whimper



Doug Pratt
DVD Critic, DVDLaser.com

The 5 Best New Wave Films:

  1. Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)

  2. Claire's Knee (Eric Rohmer, 1970)

  3. Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)

  4. The Fire Within (Louis Malle, 1963)

  5. Stolen Kisses (Francois Truffaut, 1968)

The 5 Best Movies by French New Wave Directors not made during the New Wave period:

  1. Secret Defense (Jacques Rivette, 1998)

  2. Confidentially Yours (Francois Truffaut, 1983)

  3. Day for Night (Francois Truffaut, 1973)

  4. Pauline at the Beach (Eric Rohmer, 1983)

  5. The Marquise of O (Eric Rohmer, 1976)

The other 5 Great Films from France during the New Wave Era:

  1. A Man and a Woman (Claude Lelouch, 1966)

  2. Z (Costa-Gavras, 1969)

  3. Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati, 1958)

  4. The King of Hearts (Philippe de Broca, 1966)

  5. Last Tango in Paris (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1972)



Joel Webb
Film Enthusiast

I guess one per director...in chronological order:

  • Les Quatre cents coups (François Truffaut, 1959)

  • Hiroshima, Mon Amour (Alain Resnais, 1959)

  • La jetée (Chris Marker, 1962)

  • Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)

  • Out 1 (Jacques Rivette, 1971)

HM: La Maman et la putain (Jean Eustache, 1973), Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964), Ma nuit chez Maud (Eric Rohmer, 1969).


Jesse Richards
Filmmaker

  1. Band Of Outsiders (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964)

  2. My Life To Live (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962)

  3. Shoot The Piano Player (François Truffaut, 1960)

  4. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)

  5. Cleo From 5 To 7 (Agnès Varda, 1961)

equally amazing as those five and in need of mentioning: Contempt (Godard, 1963), The 400 Blows (Truffaut, 1959), The Good Girls (Chabrol, 1960), Jules and Jim (Truffaut, 1962) Suzanne's Career (Rohmer, 1963) Alphaville (Godard, 1965), Masculine Feminine (Godard, 1966).

Honestly most things I've seen out of the French New Wave I pretty much loved except for Resnais' film Hiroshima Mon Amour (which I thought was boring and pretentious) so I could list a lot more, but it would be too long. I didn't list anything by Melville (who's films I love) because he's generally considered to not be one of the New Wave filmmakers.


Jason Mlinarsik
Film Enthusiast

  1. Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961)

  2. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)

  3. Le Samourai (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)

  4. Hiroshima Mon Amour (Alain Resnais, 1959)

  5. Jules and Jim (François Truffaut, 1962)



Lucas McNelly
Film Enthusiast

  1. Les Quatre cents coups (Francois Truffaut, 1959)

  2. un homme et une femme (Claude Lelouch, 1966)

  3. Bande à part (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964)

  4. Jules et Jim (Francois Truffaut, 1962)

  5. À bout de souffle (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)



Hans Lucas
Film Syudent

  1. Pierrot le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)

  2. Les Quatre cents coups (François Truffaut, 1959)

  3. Paris nous appartient (Jacques Rivette, 1960)

  4. Cléo de 5 à 7 (Agnès Varda, 1961)

  5. Les Bonnes Femmes (Claude Chabrol, 1960)

Honorable Mentions: Les Cousins (Claude Chabrol, 1959), À bout de souffle (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960), Tirez sur le pianiste (François Truffaut, 1960), Jules et Jim (Francois Truffaut, 1962), Vivre sa vie (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962), La Carrière de Suzanne (Eric Rohmer, 1963), Le Mépris (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963), Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964), Masculin féminin (Jean-Luc Godard, 1966), 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967), Week End (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)


Aaron W. Graham
Film Critic & Screenwriter

  1. Le Beau Serge (Claude Chabrol, 1958)

  2. Paris nous appartient (Jacques Rivette, 1960)

  3. Shoot the Piano Player (Francois Truffaut, 1960)

  4. À bout de souffle (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)

  5. Bande à part (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964)



Ben Dalton
Film Student & Enthusiast

  1. Jules et Jim (Francois Truffaut, 1962)

  2. Les 400 Coups (Francois Truffaut, 1959)

  3. Le Mepris (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)

  4. Hiroshima, Mon Amour (Alain Resnais, 1959)

  5. A Bout de Souffle (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)



Jesse Walker
Film Enthusiast and Managing Editor, Reason Magazine

  1. The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959)

  2. Sans Soleil (Chris Marker, 1982)

  3. Je t'aime, je t'aime (Alain Resnais, 1967)

  4. The Gleaners & I (Agnes Varda, 2000)

  5. Le Boucher (Claude Chabrol, 1970)



Rich Cline
Film Critic and Creator of Shadows on the Wall.

  1. A Bout de Souffle (Jean-Luc Godard, 1959)

  2. Jules et Jim (Francois Truffaut, 1962)

  3. Orphée (Jean Cocteau, 1950)

  4. L'Armée des Ombres (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969)

  5. Le Mépris (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)



Kevyn Knox
Film Critic, Essayist + Historian

When one talks of the Nouvelle Vague one immediately thinks (or at least should) of five filmmakers, nay, Auteurs. Godard, Truffaut, Rohmer, Rivette & Chabrol. One also (should) think between the years 1959 and 1968. After ten years or so, a "new" wave probably isn't all that new anymore. With that in mind (and with my refusal to list more than one director per list), my Top 5 should probably read: À bout de souffle, Jules et Jim, Le Beau Serge, La Collectionneuse & Paris nous appartient. Of course that leaves out many compatriot filmmakers such as Varda, Demy, Resnais, Melville and the like. It also leaves out later work, which is when both Rohmer and Rivette made their greatest films. So in sticking with the Nouvelle Vague idea of shaking the cinematic world up, I have thrown caution to the wind and I give you the following list.

But one more thing first. Due to its incredible power (and its incredible running time), I would herald Jacques Rivette's Out 1, noli me tangere to be held above and beyond mere cinema. Pre-number one so to speak. That said, here are the "runners-up" to Rivette's masterwork.

  1. Céline et Julie vont en bateau (Jacques Rivette, 1974)

  2. À bout de souffle (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)

  3. Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, 1961)

  4. Hiroshima mon amour / L'Année dernière à Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1959-61)

  5. Lola (Jacques Demy, 1961)

As for runners-up, I can quickly come up with about a trillion, but to keep it relatively shortish: Le Mépris, Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution, Week-End, Les Quatre cents coups, La Nuit américaine, Duelle (une quarantaine), Le Genou de Claire, Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, La jetée, Une femme est une femme, Bande à part, Haut bas fragile, Secret défense, Paris nous appartient, Pierrot le fou, Cléo de 5 à 7, Masculin féminin: 15 faits précis, Le Samouraï...ad infinitum

One final note: There is still one elusive film which could very well make this list if I were to ever get the opportunity to see it (I unfortunately missed it at the Rivette retrospective in NY last year). That film is L'Amour fou. Alas, some other day...

*points are given as follows: for numbered lists, first place recieves 5 points, second place recieves 4, third place 3, fourth place 2 and fifth place gets 1 point; for unumbered lists, each film will recieve 3 points; total points are then tallied up and a comprehensive Top 5 list is created


The Next Topic is:
Name The Top 5 Ingmar Bergman Films

e-mail me at kevynknox@thecinematheque.com with your picks for week #35,
no later than 6pm on Sunday, August 12, 2007.

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