- Arts & Literature - Science & Technology By Susheel
Gokarakonda ‘A form in which artist can express his thoughts,
however abstract they may be, or translate his obsessions
exactly as he does in the contemporary essay or novel.’ This was
how the manifesto of Alexandre Astruc expressed the potential of
cinema in 1948. It was this idea which later grew into the
French New Wave cinema of the 1950s and 1960s. New Wave was
never a contained, prescribed movement – in fact the term was
first coined by a journalist, Françoise Giroud. She used it to
describe a new generation which was asked in a public survey:
‘Are you happy? Explain your reply’. Disjointed and fragmented
with long takes and emotive pauses, New Wave cinema was a break
away from the stylistic, Hollywood films which preceded it.
Instead of huge studios filled with actors and dancers, the
French New Wavers would prefer light, portable cameras to enable
them to shoot anyplace, anytime. New Wavers collaborated with
youthful energy – that was the essence –