Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague dramatises the (chaotic) making of Breathless (1960), Jean-Luc Godard’s French New Wave classic. It’s a film about a film, told mostly in the manner of that film, with the same kind of liveliness.

Godard is as impossible to comprehend by the end as he was at the beginning

 It isn’t necessary to watch Breathless first by the way, although why not? It’s widely available on streaming platforms and, while it remains one of the most influential movies of all time, it’s just 90 minutes long. Christopher Nolan take note. You too, James Cameron. (His latest Avatar is three hours and 20 minutes, for heaven’s sake.)

Linklater certainly recreates the look, feel and sound. It is beautifully filmed in black and white, the language is French, and it deploys many of the New Wave innovations: natural light, handheld cameras,........

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