Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague” (R, 106 minutes, in theaters) is geared for people who love film with a passion.
It’s for people who know film history; who have studied and understand the significance of film noir, the Auteur Theory, Italian neorealism, and, especially, the French New Wave.
It’s for people who have seen, and especially those who love, Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless.”
Guillaume Marbeck, as Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Zoey Deutch, as Jean Seberg, star in “Nouvelle Vague.” (Netflix Studios)
“Nouvelle Vague,” then, has targeted a limited (albeit, ardent) audience and is unlikely to become a box-office blockbuster, and it’s unlikely that Linklater harbors any hope of it becoming one. As Godard himself might say, this isn’t about commerce, it’s about art.
If that scares you away, however, please reconsider. “Nouvelle Vague,” like “Breathless” when it came out 65 years ago, offers moviegoers (and filmmakers) an invitation to reconsider the mission of movies and how they’re made to achieve that mission – but in an extremely entertaining, often hilarious way.
A bit of context (which will no doubt be too short and simplistic for some, or too long and simplistic – ! – for others):
In the 1950s, a group of French film critics (Francois Truffaut, Godard, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette, Eric Rohmer) wrote for the magazine Cahiers du Cinema. Though iconoclastic in the way they challenged traditional mainstream French filmmakers, they embraced some of the genres and directors of the American studio system.
They introduced the Auteur Theory, suggesting that certain filmmakers (Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, Nicholas Ray) were the clear creative force behind their films, “authors” who put their personal stamp on their movies.
By the late 1950s, these critics, and others in their sphere, started making movies of their own, often breaking cinematic rules while approaching established genres like film noir, or Hollywood icons like Humphrey Bogart, with reverence.
Thus, the New Wave was born, with Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows” and Godard’s “Breathless” among the early highlights. Especially early on, the movement represented a kind of guerilla style of low-budget filmmaking that often departed from conventional storytelling.
Of the New Wave directors, Godard might be considered the mad scientist, always experimenting, taking chances, less concerned about audience reaction than following his own instincts and ambitions. His debut film, “Breathless,” a film about the romance of a French thief (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and an American aspiring journalist (Jean Seberg), is a kind of declaration of this new, spontaneous, anything-goes approach.
Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague” not only tells the story of the making of “Breathless,” it looks, sounds and “feels” like it’s a French New Wave film of the era. It was shot in Paris, with a mostly French cast, in black and white, and has a free-wheeling style and humor similar to that of the film it’s about.
It depicts Godard (Guillaume Marbeck) as an insolent, at times comically self-serious young man given to quoting the famous or making his own grandiose pronouncements about life and film. Determined to carve his own way into the filmdom pantheon, he refuses to work with a script, instead coming up with notes for his scenes during breakfast. Though he’s working with a low budget and has a 20-day shooting schedule, he’ll only film when he’s inspired, and will sometimes tell cast and crew to take the rest of the day off when they’ve only worked briefly.
This, understandably, drives his producer (Bruno Dreyfurst) into a rage, and his frustrated female lead, Hollywood actress Seberg (Zoey Deutch), to want to quit. (A comic highlight is when the producer tries to get Godard to explain why he isn’t working while the director is busy playing pinball.) Only boxer-turned-actor Belmondo (Aubry Dullin) takes Godard’s quirks in stride and laughs them off.
Godard’s stubborn resistance to doing the expected is funny, but, given the results, also inspiring. Linklater obviously gets this. He shows us that directors – “auteurs” – can be silly or pretentious or maybe even obnoxious, but that doesn’t mean they can’t create something great.
They can create something like “Breathless.” Or they can create something like “Nouvelle Vague.” **** (out of four)
Hawke plays Hart
It would be a banner year for Linklater if only for “Nouvelle Vague.” But he’s also directed another of 2025’s best films, “Blue Moon” (R, 100 minutes, in theaters).
This, too, is a film about an artist, but on the downslide of his career.
“Blue Moon” stars frequent Linklater collaborator Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart, a lyricist famous for his work with composer Richard Rodgers.
It’s 1943. Rodgers has a new partner, Oscar Hammerstein II, and it’s opening night for their first musical, “Oklahoma!” on Broadway. Hart, whose alcoholism and erratic behavior have frustrated Rodgers, is the odd man out at age 47.
Ethan Hawke and Margaret Qualley appear in a scene from “Blue Moon.” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Supposedly on the wagon, Hart has ducked out of the theater and sits at the bar at Sardi’s restaurant as he waits for the post-show party to begin. He trades wisecracks and lines from “Casablanca” with the bartender, Eddie (Bobby Cannavale); shares anecdotes with Morty (Johan Lees), the young serviceman playing piano; and starts a conversation with writer E.B. White (Patrick Kennedy), sitting alone at a nearby table.
Hart dominates the room with his wit – it’s easy to imagine him as the life of any party. But there’s also a desperation evident – he seems like a doomed man grasping for survival.
Though he’s widely assumed to be gay, Hart says he’s hoping that night to consummate his relationship with Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley), a 20-year-old Yale art student who’s become his protegee. When she arrives, it seems she might be more interested in getting introductions to further her career.
Meanwhile, Hart waits for Rodgers and Hammerstein to make their grand entrance. He’s been gleefully denigrating “Oklahoma!” – the exclamation point alone draws his scorn – but once the duo arrives he gushes praise on their new achievement. Once he corners Rodgers (Andrew Scott) to pitch an idea for a musical about Marco Polo, though, his true feelings on “Oklahoma!” come out.
As Rodgers, Scott subtly expresses a mixture of emotions toward his troubled ex-partner. He looks at Hart warily; he’s tired of having to work for years with someone so unstable and unreliable. He’s tired of Hart’s manic enthusiasm. And yet, it’s clear he still feels a certain loyalty, and concern, for Hart. He suggests they rework a few songs for a revival of their show “A Connecticut Yankee.”
Though Scott and Qualley are especially good in support, “Blue Moon” serves as a showcase for Hawke’s tour-de-force as Hart. His hair partially shaved, using various techniques to appear shorter, Hawkes sometimes looks like the grotesque Emcee from “Cabaret,” such as when Hart’s fawning over a colleague, or getting excited hearing Elizabeth’s romantic exploits, or acting out of control. Other times, Hawkes allows us glimpses of his character’s tragic, deeper side; his hidden hurt leading to his wasted genius.
Throughout, Hawke makes us feel Hart’s overwhelming sense of jealousy, resignation and despair as he finds himself gazing at youth, success and romance … at the parade of life that is passing him by. ****
** Click here for Tim Miller’s previous movie columns for Cape Cod Wave **
Please like Cape Cod Wave on Facebook.
Cape Cod Wave Magazine covers the character & culture of Cape Cod. Please see our Longform stories.
Tim Miller, Movie Critic
Tim Miller is co-president of the Boston Society of Film Critics and a Tomatometer-approved critic. He teaches film and journalism at Cape Cod Community College in West Barnstable. You can contact Tim at [email protected] or follow him onTwitter @TimMillerCritic. Or you can ignore him completely.
