Clemson University TigerPrints All Theses Theses 12-2014 Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut: The Influence of Hollywood, Modernization and Radical Politics on their Films and Friendship Caroline Glenn Clemson University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at:https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses Part of theEuropean History Commons, and theFilm and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Glenn, Caroline, "Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut: The Influence of Hollywood, Modernization and Radical Politics on their Films and Friendship" (2014).All Theses. 2074. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/2074 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please [email protected]. JEAN-LUC GODARD AND FRANÇOIS TRUFFAUT: THE INFLUENCE OF HOLLYWOOD, MODERNIZATION AND RADICAL POLITICS ON THEIR FILMS AND FRIENDSHIP A Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of Clemson University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Masters of Arts History by Caroline Catherine Anne Glenn December 2014 Accepted by: Dr. Alan Grubb, Committee Chair Dr. James Burns Dr. H. Roger Grant i ABSTRACT During the late 1950’s the French film industry’s hard-won financial stability during the Occupation and liberation years had all but disappeared. Combined with the dwindling, unpredictable nature of French audiences, the multi-star, literary adaptation dramas French studios produced were no longer reliable. In response to these dilemmas a transformation took place in French cinema. Known as the nouvelle vague (or French New Wave), the movement was largely, but not completely, a reaction to France’s declining film industry. The nation as a whole was undergoing significant change and growth during the 1950s. From the Algerian conflict, the Fourth Republic’s collapse and the return of Charles de Gaulle to the Americanization of France and the emergence of increased consumerism, the political climate and cultural context of France in the 1950’s is equally as important as the situation of France’s film industry in explaining the congruence of circumstances that produced the nouvelle vague. This essay will examine these underlying causes and their ability to influence cultural conceptions before going on to examine the two directors seen to spearhead this movement, François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, whose friendship began in the ciné-clubs of postwar France. Both men contributed heavily to the revolution taking place in cinema during the late fifties, which provided a foundation for the modern cinema. Unlike their films and theories, their relationship and rapport has failed to be fully examined. Truffaut and Godard, their close personal and professional relationship and its eventual disintegration was ultimately the result of the ideological conflicts of the period which had, as a result, not only the calamity of a friendship but their different approaches to filmmaking. ii DEDICATION For my father, Garland D. Glenn II, who imparted his wanderlust and love of history to me at a young age; For my mother, Lahneen Alicia Glenn, who taught me to follow my heart and the importance of good grammar; And, for my husband, Matthew Ryan Prestridge, with whom life is always an adventure and never, ever ordinary. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My deepest thanks and gratitude go to Dr. Alan Grubb, Dr. James Burns and Dr. H. Roger Grant for the many hours they contributed into the preparation of this thesis. The expertise of all three has been invaluable and Dr. Grubb, in particular, has devoted a great deal of time and effort into helping me develop my topic from a seminar paper into a master’s thesis. He was always available for my questions and gave generously of his time and knowledge, pointing me towards the right film, source or theory. Dr. Burns, through his classes on film history, taught me the invaluable skill of how to study this fascinating medium from the perspective of a historian as well as an artist. Dr. Grant, who brings passion and life to his lectures, showed that out of despair come some of the worlds most beautiful and interesting inventions. I am especially grateful to my wonderful husband, Ryan, who has supported me every day of this journey. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TITLE PAGE .................................................................................................................... i ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................ iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................. iv CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 1 II. WHAT IS THE NEW WAVE? .................................................................... 9 Ciné-clubs and Film Journals................................................................. 17 Cahiers du Cinéma and The Young Turks ............................................ 25 III. CHANGING IDEALS AND BORDERS ................................................... 31 Postwar Politics in France – de Gaulle’s return and the Algerian War ....................................................................... 34 Postwar French Culture – The Age of Marx and Coca-cola ................................................................................... 43 IV. GODARD AND TRUFFAUT: THEIR FILMS, THEIR FRIENDSHIP AND THEIR FALLOUT ............................................... 56 From the Cinémathèque to Cannes 1959 ............................................... 57 The Years of Friendship and Struggle ................................................... 69 1968: Towards a Political Cinema and the End of a Friendship .......................................................................... 88 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 118 v CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION For the fourth time in its existence, the French film industry after the Second World War was in serious trouble. During the late 1950’s the film industry’s hard-won financial stability during the Occupation and liberation years had all but disappeared. The French attended the cinema in increasingly fewer numbers with each passing year, and this trend, according to Alan Williams, “moving in tandem with the steady rise of the nation’s television sets” continues until the present.1 With their market contracting in France and throughout the rest of Europe, big budget quality productions were less and less likely to turn a profit. Combined with the growing unpredictability of French audiences, the old formulations of multi-star, literary adaptation dramas were no longer as reliable as they had once appeared. The transformation of French cinema that came about as a response to these new dilemmas coincided with a dramatic sociopolitical crisis in the nation at large: the crucial 1958-1959 film season took place during the creation of the Fifth Republic under the leadership of Charles De Gaulle. This transformative phenomenon known as the nouvelle vague (or French New Wave) was largely, but not completely, a reaction to France’s declining film industry. Although, as Alan Williams asserts in his book A Republic of Images, France was the birthplace of cinema and by the 1950’s was being surpassed by several other countries, there are additional non-industry factors that contributed to the emergence of this new 1 Alan Williams, Republic of Images: A History of French Filmmaking (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992), 327. 1 approach to filmmaking.2 Various political, societal and cultural factors would appear within the context of New Wave films. In addition to France’s waning and diminishing film industry, the nation as a whole was experiencing serious growing pains during this decade. These will be discussed at greater length in the second chapter and include the Algerian conflict, the failure of the Fourth Republic and the return of Charles de Gaulle, the Americanization of France or growing influence of America and American culture and the emergence of increased consumerism and materialism, along with the overturning of traditional moral beliefs and conventions of sexuality. In this regard it is equally as important to examine the political climate and cultural context of France in the 1950’s as well as the film movement itself in an attempt to obtain a more complete understanding of the environment that produced the nouvelle vague and why it had such a profound impact on both the industry and society. This essay will examine these contributing situational causes and their ability to influence cultural conceptions as well as the circumstances that surrounded the emergence of the resurgence of the French film industry before going on to examine several directors and their works, namely François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. Following a detailed discussion of the major contributors and their works, the commentary will study their lasting impact on the field in an attempt to explore and explain the circumstances that produced them. Finally, this essay will also attempt to 2 In his book A Republic of Images, Alan Williams traces the history of the Cinema, with a special focus on France’s massive contributions to the medium. He asserts essentially that France was the birthplace of film and moving pictures especially in the first section, “French Cinema Dominates the World Market.” 2 elucidate the methods in which these directors determined to deal with their past and present experiences through a radical film movement. Given the depth, significance and variety of the New Wave, much about the movement and its members still remains unexamined. Broad survey histories necessarily condense this period and its primary figures into simple summaries, while texts devoted to the French cinema or to the New Wave in particular, such as James Monaco’s The New Wave, Roy Armes’ French Cinema, and Alan Williams’ Republic of Images, though they offer quite different perspectives on the New Wave, all end up privileging those directors who had begun as critics for Cahiers du cinéma before they turned to filmmaking itself. For James Monaco, the New Wave is essentially five filmmakers, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer, and Jacques Rivette. In his view, despite their differences, he believes this group shares “a basic attitude towards the art of film which unites them from the majority of their predecessors” by employing the medium as a “fascinating way to discover the world.”3 He argues that it is their “urgent curiosity” and quest to understand the world around them that stand out in their collective efforts.4 Furthermore, he is fairly unconcerned with defining the movement as a school or outlining its dates more than in discussing the political or social forces that shaped it. Film historian Roy Armes, on the other hand, divides New Wave-era France into clusters of renewals coming from various new groups of directors. For him, however, New Wave directors have to come directly from criticism; hence, he too regards the 3 James Monaco, The New Wave: Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, Rohmer, Rivette (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976), 2. 4 Ibid. 3 Cahiers du cinéma filmmakers as the only pure members. Armes avoids explaining the New Wave as either a historical or critical term. Williams does a more complete job, especially for such a large survey history, in undertaking the near impossible task of synthesizing almost a century of French filmmaking into one text. He also establishes the key influences on them and classifies the most important directors as the ‘reformists’ (these include Louis Malle, Claude Chabrol, and François Truffaut) in contrast to those he sees as more marginal directors such as Eric Rohmer or radical ones like Jean-Luc Godard. All these film scholars help in their different ways to demonstrate the significance of these new directors, their themes, and their production techniques, but they generally fail to grant adequate space to the cultural context of 1950s France, the history of Cahiers du cinéma‘s participation or the resulting films’ unusual narrative tactics. Richard Neupert attempts to remedy this reduction of ‘newness’ into a “tidy list of representative traits culled from a few canonical films and directors” by offering a more in-depth study of the era “while remaining focused on the Cahiers directors as exemplary representatives of New Wave filmmaking.”5 The early enthusiasm for the cinema exhibited by a new generation of young critics, bent upon becoming filmmakers themselves, prompts real enthusiasm in his own narrative of the New Wave. The introduction and initial chapter entitled “Where did the Wave Begin?” provide a much- needed cultural background. Indeed, the significance of the bonds established early on between them in their passion for the cinema and critical writing about it constitutes a 5 Richard Neupert, A History of the French New Wave Cinema (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2007), xvi. 4