Historically French was the language of European aristocracy from St Petersburg to London. Even today the perception remains that spoken & written French, having greater nuance than English or German, is the language of the intellectual.

As well as the ‘language of intellect’ the French lay claim to inventing Haute Couture, Fine Food, Café Society, Chic … and the Nouvelle Vague (New Wave cinema) France is generally acknowledged as the centre of cinematic innovation & cinema has always been an important ingredient of French intellectual life.

New Wave cinema was born out of the Cinematheque Francaise in Paris where non-mainstream movies were often shown, this at a time when French cinemas were awash with a backlog of American & English movies that had been banned during the wartime occupation by the Germans. Budding directors such as Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol & Resnais, who were film critics employed by the influential movie magazine Cahiers du Cinema, went to the Cinematheque Francaise not only to watch movies ... but also to plan a radical change in the making of movies with the principal concept that the Director (Auteur) became the Metteur-en-Scene.

A whole new approach to cinema came into being with the auteur becoming the real ‘author’ of the finished product rather than the traditional studio based system. The mid 1950s onwards saw the development of New Wave films portraying a mix of both sensual & world weary characters filmed in everyday location settings.

Influential to this radical change was the use of newly designed affordable hand-held film cameras, which meant the auteur no longer required an expensive studio to work in but could use real locations that provided authentic backdrops. Also actors were encouraged to act naturally & often to improvise lines while the camera was running. Another influence on the New Wave was Italy’s Neo-realism movement. Italian auteurs such as Rossellini & De Sica showed it was possible to make dramatic & incredibly moving films on location with obvious liberating creative advantages.

Many fine movies came out of the New Wave era but arguably the quintessential New Wave film is Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘A Bout de Souffle’ (released in the UK as ‘Breathless’) featuring a relatively then unknown Jean-Paul Belmondo & the delightfully perspicacious Jean Seburg, fresh from playing Joan of Arc. ‘A Bout de Souffle’ has all the hallmarks one associates with genuine French style - an improvised jazz score, quirky humour, folks in Parisian cafes chain-smoking Gauloises, plus existential angst – underpinned by a first rate storyline that pays homage to classic American gangster movies. It went on to be hailed as the most significant film of the period & make cult heroes of its stars & director.