Nouvelle Vague (2025)

Richard Linklater: Nouvelle Vague (US/FR 2025). Aubry Dullin (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and Zoey Deutch (Jean Seberg).

United States, France 2025

Director: Richard Linklater

Black and white

Starring: Guillaume Marbeck, Zoey Deutch, Aubry Dullin, Adrien Rouyard

Languages: mostly French, with some English

105 min

Distributor: Cinema Mondo, subtitles on copy: English

Love & Anarchy 38th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF).

Viewed at Bio Rex Lasipalatsi, Helsinki, Sat 20.9.2025 at 21.00–22.45

NB. Jean-Luc Godard himself directed a movie called Nouvelle vague (FR 1990).

Mika Siltala (HIFF 2025): "Welcome to the time machine, destination: the coolest corners of Paris in 1959."

"Richard Linklater’s ode to the joy of cinema dives into the amusing twists behind the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s legendary film Breathless."

"The Cahiers du Cinema office is bursting with activity. Claude Chabrol had already directed two feature films. François Truffaut was about to leave for Cannes for the release of his first film, The 400 Blows. Godard embezzles money for travel from the magazine’s coffers and joins him on the trip. Everyone is aware that something new is about to happen."

"Godard simply must direct a film himself. It is easily done: just fool a producer into joining the project and convince Jean Seberg (Zoey Deutch) to become the glowing female lead. Belmondo was born to play the criminal. In the mornings, at the coffeehouse, he invents a few lines of the screenplay, and then they film for an hour, or a whole day. Trust the process, and eventually there will be a film to show. In minor parts, we get glimpses of characters such as Robert Bresson, Jean-Pierre Melville, and Roberto Rossellini."

"All of this is both historically accurate and simultaneously invented. Richard Linklater, at the peak of his powers, masterfully captures the immediacy of the process that took place both in front as well as behind the camera. And during the filming breaks, which there were plenty of."

"Guillaume Marbeck is a strangely perfect Godard. If we got to see his eyes, we might be able to tell that we are looking at an actor, but the dark glasses stay on. Style above all else. Even his voice creaks just like Godard’s. A legend is alive, and everyone is having fun. This is truly an ode to the joy of cinema." Mika Siltala (translated by Herman Tikkanen)

"Richard Linklaterin oodi elokuvan ilolle sukeltaa Jean-Luc Godardin legendaarisen Viimeiseen hengenvetoon -elokuvan tuotannon hilpeisiin käänteisiin."

"Tervetuloa aikakoneeseen, Pariisin siisteimmille mestoille vuoteen 1959."

"Cahiers du Cinema -lehden toimituksessa oli vauhtia. Toimittajista Chabrol oli jo ohjannut kaksi leffaa. Truffaut oli lähdössä Cannesin elokuvajuhlille esittelemään esikoistaan 400 kepposta. Godard kähvelsi lehden kassasta matkarahat ja painui mukaan. Kaikki tiesivät, että nyt tapahtuu jotain uutta."

"Godardin oli päästävä ohjaamaan. Se on helppoa: huijataan tuottaja mukaan, puhutaan Jean Seberg (Zoey Deutch) hehkumaan naispääosaan, ja Belmondo on kuin luotu konnan rooliin. Aamuisin keksitään pätkä käsikirjoitusta kahvilassa, kuvataan tunti tai koko päivä. Kyllä tästä leffa tulee. Sivuosissa vilahtelee Robert Bressonin, Jean-Pierre Melvillen ja Roberto Rossellinin kaltaisia hahmoja."

"Kaikki tämä on historiallisesti akkuraattia ja samanaikaisesti keksittyä. Uransa huipulla oleva Richard Linklater tavoittaa sen välittömyyden, joka kuvauksissa vallitsi yhtä lailla kameran edessä ja takana. Sekä etenkin kuvaustauoilla, joita oli paljon."

"Guillaume Marbeck on oudon täydellinen Godard. Silmät ehkä paljastaisivat, että kyseessä on näyttelijä, mutta mustat lasit pysyvät päässä. Tyyli ennen kaikkea. Jopa ääni on samanlaista narinaa kuin Godardilla. Legenda herää henkiin, ja kaikilla on hauskaa. Tämä on varsinainen oodi elokuvan ilolle." Mika Siltala

AA: This year, Richard Linklater brings us two remarkable biopics. Blue Moon is about the last days of the Broadway legend Lorenz Hart. Nouvelle Vague is about the first feature film by Jean-Luc Godard.

I had mixed feelings upon entering the screening. Jean-Luc Godard is a highly recognizable personality, through countless interviews in which he was like a fish in the water, but also from his own movies in which he often appeared, from fiction films like Le Mépris to the remarkable series of essay films which he pursued to the end.

What a wonderful surprise Nouvelle Vague is. I always take copious notes from films, but Nouvelle Vague gripped me so that I failed to take any.

The story of the French New Wave is well-known. It was well covered since the beginning, and there are wonderful in-depth accounts by great historians such as Antoine De Baecque.

Richard Linklater is up to the task. There is remarkable accuracy in the detail and the cast of characters. Linklater and his leading actor, Guillaume Marback, catch both surface authenticity and all-importantly a true Godardian spirit. His dialogue is a delight and a revelation also to a Godard connoisseur.

It is the spirit of a brilliant, aphorism-spitting mind, and it is also a team spirit of the New Wave, the Cahiers du Cinéma office and the À bout de souffle team. Congratulations to all.

Linklater and his team catch the spirit of joy. There was also pain and suffering, and a sense of desperation.

The young Godard was a desperado. But he had balls. With courage and defiance, he risked everything and made a movie that changed art.

There is no revolution without tradition. Godard always revered the masters, of whom are featured here Cocteau, Bresson, Melville and Rossellini. He himself launched or relaunched dozens of careers, of whom we meet here Jean Seberg, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Raoul Coutard, all vibrant and full of life. A favourite scene of mine is the one where Seberg and Belmondo compete in Godard impressions.

...

PS 24 Sep 2025. Three points. 

    ONE. I love Nouvelle Vague for its sense of joy which feels true to what I know about the genesis of this wave. 

    TWO. For the full picture I would expect more commitment to gravity, a sense of despair and an awareness of transience and death. 

    THREE. "There is cinema before and after Godard" (Richard Roud). The cinematic references are more than a cinephilic playground. The cultural collage of the consumer society and the entertainment industry, the torrent of quotations, headlines, advertisements,  cliches, symbols and movie stars grows into something bigger than the sum of its parts. À bout de souffle was a turning-point in the insight of contemporary reality being a media reality.