A History of the French New Wave Cinema (Wisconsin Studies in Film)

Book Description

The French New Wave cinema is arguably the most fascinating of all film movements, famous for its exuberance, daring, and avant-garde techniques. A History of the French New Wave Cinema offers a fresh look at the social, economic, and aesthetic mechanisms that shaped French film in the 1950s, as well as detailed studies of the most important New Wave movies of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Richard Neupert first tracks the precursors to New Wave cinema, showing how they provided blueprints for those who would follow. He then demonstrates that it was a core group of critics-turned-directors from the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma—especially François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, and Jean-Luc Godard—who really revealed that filmmaking was changing forever. Later, their cohorts Eric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Pierre Kast continued in their own unique ways to expand the range and depth of the New Wave.

In an exciting new chapter, Neupert explores the subgroup of French film practice known as the Left Bank Group, which included directors such as Alain Resnais and Agnès Varda. With the addition of this new material and an updated conclusion, Neupert presents a comprehensive review of the stunning variety of movies to come out of this important era in filmmaking.

Customer Reviews:

You won't want to put this book down!.......2003-04-28

Extremely well written, I really enjoy reading this book very much. The subject matter is no doubt fascinating, and the author, Mr. Neupert has done a wonderful job in presenting the history of the French New Wave Cinema. Not only does the author include a comprehensive political, cultural and commercial development that lead to the phenomenon, he also manages to present each influential New Wave directors, actors/actresses along with their important works in great detail. The book includes movie story lines in such detail that even if you have not seen the movie, you will appreciate and understand what the author is trying to convey. The author discusses issues on techniques, budgets and distributorship in French cinemas. Most interestingly, pictures from films discussed are liberally peppered throughout the book.

Mr. Neupert's writing style is greatly commendable. The words are straightforward and full of good information it's such a pleasure to read his book. I especially enjoy the title description Mr. Neupert gives for each of the directors. I feel that he's very accurate in describing Chabrol as "the one launching the wave", Varda's success for her "elegance realism" and my favorite Truffaut as "the wave's ringleader".

Amazon.com

A coffee-table book on the Nouvelle Vague (or New Wave) filmmakers might be considered a contradiction in terms. Yet as big and well-designed as it is, with all those creamy photographs, it still manages to look like the smart, perverse product of that band of outsiders who in 1950s Paris decided to overturn the last generation. In Jean Doucet's story, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, Claude Chabrol, and Eric Rohmer all shucked their day jobs in film criticism to begin making films with borrowed cameras and their raw nerve, hunting their cinematic forefathers--Jean Renoir, Marcel Carne, and Marcel Pagnol. Doucet's lively book is true to their vision too. With its jazz album fonts and tinted photographs of young men smoking, it gives no corner to dumbness, and much space to the coolness of being alive during that time. Through 350-plus pages, Doucet, a philosopher who knew the filmmakers, covers the early days of the Cinematheque Français, where all the filmmakers met and watched Chaplin, Griffith, and Murnau; the emergence of Cahiers du Cinéma, where they published witty, polemical essays, as the center of their revolution; and the films themselves, beginning with Truffaut's 400 Blows in 1959 and Godard's Breathless in 1960. Doucet reproduces film reviews of the period and includes copies of old cine-club programs, newspaper stories, and a final chapter on "new waves" in Iran, Czechoslovakia, Brazil, and even the U.S. (see Jim Jarmusch). A probing, affectionate look at the birth of a handful of movie-mad film students who changed the face of cinema. --Lyall Bush

Book Description

"Here is a lavish history of the film movement that spawned the careers of Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, and a number of other important contemporary filmmakers. Douchet... considers his subject from almost every possible angle."--Library Journal. "A landmark in film scholarship."--Cineaste

Customer Reviews:

Essential for serious film lovers!.......1999-11-08

Jean Douchet's book is a splendid chronicle of the French New Wave phenomenon. Generously illustrated and incisively written. Well-balanced. Illuminating profiles on New Wave icons like Godard, Anna Karina, Truffaut, Jacques Rivette.

Screening the Text: Intertextuality in New Wave French Cinema

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Screening the Text: Intertextuality in New Wave French Cinema
T. Jefferson Kline
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Godard on Godard: Critical Writings by Jean-Luc Godard (Da Capo Paperback)

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Cinema has always been "literary" in its desire to tell stories and in its need to borrow plots and narrative techniques from novels. But the French New Wave directors of the 1950s self-consciously rejected the idea that film was a mere extension of literature. With subversive techniques that exploded traditional methods of film narrative, they embraced fragmentation and alienation. Their cinema would be literature's rival, not its apprentice. In Screening the Text, T. Jefferson Kline argues that the New Wave's rebellious stance is far more complex and problematic than critics have acknowledged. Challenging conventional views of film and literature in postwar France, Kline explores the New Wave's unconscious obsession with the tradition it claimed to reject. He uncovers the wide range of the literary and cultural texts -- American films, classical mythology, French literature, and a variety of Russian, Norwegian, German, and English writers and philosophers -- as "screened" in seven films: Truffaut's Jules et Jim; Malle's Les Amants; Resnais's L'Année dernière à Marienbad; Chabrol's Le Beau Serge; Rohmer's Ma Nuit chez Maud; Bresson's Pickpocket; and Godard's Pierrot le fou.

The French New Wave: A New Look (Short Cuts)

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The French New Wave: A New Look (Short Cuts)
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The French New Wave was perhaps the biggest& mdash;and briefest& mdash;explosion in the history of world cinema, with over one hundred French directors shooting debut features between 1958 and 1964. Its aftershocks are still being felt today. Through the work of such directors as Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut, filmmakers came to be seen as outstanding artists rather than mere studio technicians, paving the way for contemporary cinematic auteurs such as Martin Scorsese, Pedro Almodovar, and Luc Besson. This volume begins by tracing the social and cultural changes of post-war France that gave birth to the New Wave, then examines in detail the careers of artists like Alain Renais and Jean-Luc Godard. The French New Wave: A New Look is a concise and accessible account of a crucial movement in film history.

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French New Wave (Pocket Essentials S.)
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Pocket Essentials is a dynamic series of books that are concise, lively, and easy to read. Packed with facts as well as expert opinions, each book has all the key information you need to know about such popular topics as film, television, cult fiction, history, and more. In addition to an introduction to the subject, each topic is individually analyzed and reviewed, examining its impact on culture or history. There is also a reference section that lists related web sites and weightier (and more expensive) books on the subject. For media buffs, students, and inquiring minds, these are great entry-level books that build into an essential library.

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Reading the French New Wave: Critics, Writers and Art Cinema in France
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One of the most important movements in cinema history, the French New Wave of directors such as Jean-Luc Godard and Alain Resnais not only revitalised French cinema, but permanently shifted cinema's aesthetic horizons by incorporating the narrative complexities of emerging modernist literature such as Alain Robbe-Grillet, Marguerite Duras and Jean Cayrol. This volume is the first title to comprehensively analyse these links between the New Wave and the New Novel, exploring intellectual figures such as Roland Barthes and Jorge Luis Borges, and their relationship with French cinema and its theorists, including Christian Metz and Noel Burch, as well as discussing groundbreaking films such as Hiroshima mon amour (1959) and L'Année dernière à Marienbad (1962). Examining these connections between the cinematic and the literary avant gardes, Reading the French New Wave locates France's filmmaking revolution as a part of a wider artistic reevaluation of the mid-twentieth century.

Les mistons and undercurrents of French new wave cinema (The Geske lectures)

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Les mistons and undercurrents of French new wave cinema (The Geske lectures)
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This guide lists more than 5,200 works for the solo cellist written by 3,100 composers over the past thirty years. Entries give information on the date of composition, duration, publisher or source, first performances, and recordings, instrumentation, new performance techniques used, and degree of difficulty. Indexed by composers and cellists.

Cello Music since 1960: A Bibliography of Solo Chamber, and Orchestral Works for the Solo Cellist.: An article from: Notes

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Cello Music since 1960: A Bibliography of Solo Chamber, and Orchestral Works for the Solo Cellist.: An article from: Notes
Helga Winold
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This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on December 1, 1995. The length of the article is 611 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Cello Music since 1960: A Bibliography of Solo Chamber, and Orchestral Works for the Solo Cellist.
Author: Helga Winold
Publication: Notes (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 1995
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
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False Advertising

Great introduction -- is it so bad to be aimed at beginners?

A Great Place to Start!

VERY Basic - for beginners only

Very disappointed with this book

No-Limit Texas Hold'em: The New Player's Guide to Winning Poker's Biggest Game (The New Players Series)
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Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 1: Strategic Play

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For experienced limit players who want to play no-limit or rookies who has never played before, two world champions give readers a crash course in how to play poker's hottest game and join the elite ranks of million-dollar, no-limit hold'em tournament winners and cash game players. Readers learn the winning principles and four major skills: how to evaluate the strength of a hand, determine how much to bet, how to understand how opponents play, and how to bluff and when to do it. The authors, who have won millions of dollars, provide tons of practical examples, a betting chart for tournament play and the key strategies to beat online no-limit hold'em cash games.

Customer Reviews:

False Advertising.......2005-09-01

In my opinion, the authors and those who wrote the advertisements I saw for this book have advertised falsely. The authors and advertisers say the book is for learning no-limit cash-game and tournament strategies and techniques. There is virtually no information on cash-game techniques and strategies, however, and no information on how to adapt the given tournament strategies to cash-games. Therefore the book only does half or less of what it is supposed to do.

Great introduction -- is it so bad to be aimed at beginners?.......2005-02-08

I am astounded to read the reviews below giving this book one star because it is "for beginners" or "very basic". Across the top of the front cover of this book is a banner that reads: "The NEW PLAYER Series". Below the title it reads: "The new player's guide to winning poker's biggest game". You would think people would rate a book high if it lives up to its premise. This book is SUPPOSED to be for beginners.

The first 25-30 pages are aimed at people new to hold'em, to bring them up to speed. After that, it is the basics of no-limit hold'em play, pretty much everything you need to know to get started.

Judging by how the majority of players out there (on the internet and in brick-and-mortar casinos) play, most people would benefit from a good fundamental understanding of the basics.

This book teaches you these basics. The only problem with some of the other literature out there on no-limit is that it assumes you are an experienced player. We needed a good basic text, and here it is.

Highly recommended advice from two great poker players, for the beginner and those experienced hold'em players making the move to no-limit.

A Great Place to Start!.......2005-02-02

I do confess I am a novice NL hold 'em player. I mean really -- what do I know about poker books? Still I have found this book an excellent source for laying down fundamental and basic NL strategy as well as answering a lot of the questions I had about the NL game (like, "how the heck do I know how much to bet??"). The negative reviews here seem to harp on the fact that this book is too basic. Well , let's see.....Wow, how about that?!?! It says "NEW PLAYER SERIES" on the cover.

Seriously, if you are a NL new player, I think this is a great place to start and build upon. I can't speak for more advanced players, but I imagine this book would be a good source for all levels. The book has a friendly, easy to read style and is filled with plenty of scenarios you might find yourself in at the table. You'll find all of the key concepts are pretty much covered -- starting hands, position, reading players, tournament strategies, All-in situations, etc.

The book is not without flaws: no serious discussion of pot odds and outs, virtually nothing on playing the turn and river [although you must realize must pro's want to win a pot pre-flop and/or on the flop. The whole point of NL is to make it too expensive for your opponent to see the next card(s).]

But overall this book provides the foundation for solid play. If you are new to the NL game -- START HERE!

VERY Basic - for beginners only.......2004-11-19

This book was extremely basic, buy the Championship Series version. I consider myself a mid-level to advanced limit player just starting to explore the world of No Limit and I already knew most of the stuff this book contained. It was really a waste of time.

Very disappointed with this book.......2004-11-19

If you are anywhere beyond beginner, this book will be of very little use to you. I am by no means an expert, but I found most of the information contained in the book to be very basic.

I also think some of the advice is terrible. Example (p. 182): it's fairly early in the tournament and you have plenty of chips; you call a small raise from a very loose and aggressive player preflop with AKs; flop brings 66Q, two of your suit and the aggressive player bets roughly the size of the pot. The book's advice in this spot? "With the nut flush draw and two over cards you have a very big hand." Go all in! Or, as an alternative "smooth call" to try to keep another player in the pot.

I have nowhere near the qualifications of the authors, but I can not fathom why anyone would want to put a ton of chips at risk at this point in a tourney with a hand that is, at best, a little behind and, at worst, completely dominated.

I know there aren't a lot of no limit books out there, but there must be some better than this.

Book Description

The legendary television star tells the backstage stories of the classic comedy of Your Show of Shows, Caesar's Hour, and other landmark programs.

It is no exaggeration to say that without Sid Caesar, comedy in America would have been a lot less funny. He was the star and guiding force behind Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, two of the most innovative programs in the Golden Age of Television, and the writers and stars of those shows went on to create the plays, movies, and sitcoms that we now think of as classic American comedy. So many of our greatest comedy writers--Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart, Woody Allen--were part of Sid Caesar's creative troupe. Sid was a master not only of comedic performance, but also of developing characters that the audience could relate to, finding the humor in ordinary situations rather than through vaudeville-type gags. His was a comedy truly drawn from the human condition.

Caesar's Hours is Sid Caesar 's artistic autobiography, his account of how these great routines were fashioned and performed, and the interactions that gave birth to them. He takes us inside the famed writers' room, the rehearsal studios, and onto the stage itself, where some of the funniest moments in television history came to life. To read his book is to learn why his intelligent and sensitive brand of humor resonates so much with us, even half a century later.

Customer Reviews:

A Pioneer.......2005-05-25

Here is a man that not only made the world laugh, he could poke fun at himself. Sid Caesar set an example for countless comedians to follow. He makes the history of early television come alive. This is a wonderful way to spend a few hours.

HAIL, CAESAR!..........2005-02-27

This is a wonderful memoir that takes the reader down memory lane. As anyone one reading this biography knows, Sid Caesar was one of the foremost comedians of his time. In fact, he was actually ranked the third all time great comedian (after Jackie Gleason and Lucille Ball) by a documentary about the greatest comedians of all time, which documentary was featured on the A & E cable television channel.

I know that my parents used to watch Cid Caesar's ground breaking television program, "Your Show of Shows". I myself was too young to have any recollection of it. I do, however, recall that as a young child, together with my family, I watched his subsequent show in the latter half of the nineteen fifties, "Caesar's Hour". Sid Caesar was the then king of comedy, and he broke trail for many of the comedians that were to follow him. Many of the greatest comedic writers to ever write for television started out writing for his shows. Greats such as Neil Simon, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, and Woody Allen were among some of his writers. No wonder that era was heralded as the Golden Age of Television!

In his memoir, Sid Caesar talks only a little about himself on a very personal level. Still, he comes across as an intelligent man who dearly loves his wife of over sixty years. He acknowledges his personal foibles, such as a drinking problem that, at times, threatened to overwhelm him, as well as a never ending quest for creative perfection. This book is not so much about Caesar, the man, but rather about Caesar, the performing artist. Consequently, Sid Caesar the man remains a bit of a mystery. On the other hand, Sid Caesar, the performer, comes vividly to life. This is more of an artistic autobiography rather than a personal one.

He lovingly reminisces about how he got his start on the road to fame and fortune. Born in 1922 in Yonkers, New York, to Jewish immigrants from Poland and Russia, Sid was an accomplished musician who could play the saxophone with the best of them. Having started out as a musician, Sid Caesar would cut his comedic teeth in the borscht belt of the Catskill Mountains. It was there that he would also meet Florence, the love of his life. At the onset of World War II, Sid would play with a number of orchestras in Manhattan, before signing up with the Coast Guard in 1942, and in 1943 he married his beloved Florence.

While in the Coast Guard, Sid became part of a successful revue for the troops, which raised his profile. This propelled him to Hollywood after his discharge from the Coast Guard, where he would become involved in the movie industry, starring in a number of comedies. From there, he would go on to perform for the nightclub circuit on the East Coast. Sid was not a stand-up comedian, but rather, a comedic sketch artist. From there it would be a short trip to Broadway, where Sid would achieve tremendous success in a revue called "Make Mine Manhattan", in which he would turn in an award-winning performance. This would lead him right to television, which was still in its nascent stage, and into the homes and hearts of millions of Americans.

This book is chock full of information on the early days of television, which had more in common with theatre and stage work than with film, as it was live television. Undoubtedly, this factor was responsible for much of the frenetic pace and spontaneity which existed. Today, television is more like film rather than stage work, as very little is shot live. Sid Caesar lovingly lays out for the reader many of his comedic sketches that were his special shtick. He meticulously explains how his comedic routines were fashioned and performed.

He speaks glowingly about his wonderful professional partnership with the late Imogene Coca, the googly-eyed comedienne, with whom he would be in perfect comedic harmony. They would make beautiful music together with their hilarious sketches that parodied slices of life and the human condition. Together, these two would touch a chord among audiences that would forever enshrine them in television history, making them the golden couple of the Golden Age of Television.

This is an engaging artistic biography that will appeal to fans of Sid Caesar and to those with an interest in the early years of television. Those readers who enjoy memoirs and biographies will likewise find this to be a worthwhile and interesting book.

Tells how his routines were fashioned and performed.......2004-05-16

Sid Caesar was the star of Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, two of the most innovative and popular programs in the Age of Television and a creator of some of the greatest comedy writers of his times. This informative autobiography tells how his routines were fashioned and performed, and examines the methods and creations of the writers who made him famous.

A Masterpiece!.......2004-04-03

I wholeheartedly recommend Caesar's Hours. Not only is this book an autobiography, but also an encyclopedia of sorts. Sid eloquently writes of his early years growing up in New York, his numerous tries at breaking into show business, his service to the country during WWII, and finally, his years on 'Your Show of Shows' and 'Caesar's Hour'. Along the way, Sid shares some of his favorite jokes and sketches that he has used during his reign as TV legend.

What makes Sid even more commendable and the book even more facinating, is how Sid gives credit to all those who helped him along the way. While most entertainers take all the credit, Sid carefully notes his comedy writers and fellow actors who, together, are the reason for his and the shows' great success.

I recommend this book to anyone wishing to read about Sid's life, and all those who want to know just how difficult it was to produce a show a week, in an entertainment medium that was in its infancy.

A magnificant work from the last of the Televion Legends!

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