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45-520: The firm was founded by Brulatour and Eclair president Charles Jourjon as Peerless Features. Clara Kimball Young left Vitagraph to join Peerless. At one point the studio publicized plans to develop Starin's Glen Island but the land purchase was never completed. The studio buildings burned down on November 23, 1958. A historical marker commemorates the location in Fort Lee, New Jersey where

90-519: A quality " and in December 1962 published a list of 162 film directors who had made their feature film debut since 1959. Many of these directors, such as Edmond Agabra and Henri Zaphiratos, were not as successful or enduring as the well-known members of the New Wave and today would not be considered part of it. Shortly after Truffaut's published list appeared, Godard publicly declared that the New Wave

135-472: A commercial release until 2008. Truffaut, with The 400 Blows (1959), and Godard, with Breathless (1960) had unexpected international successes, both critical and financial, that turned the world's attention to the activities of the New Wave and enabled the movement to flourish. Part of their technique was to portray characters not readily labeled as protagonists in the classic sense of audience identification. The auteurs of this era owe their popularity to

180-495: A dictatorial plot-line . They were especially against the French "cinema of quality", the type of high-minded, literary period films held in esteem at French film festivals, often regarded as "untouchable" by criticism. New Wave critics and directors studied the work of Western classics and applied new avant-garde stylistic direction. The low-budget approach helped filmmakers get at the essential art form and find what was, to them,

225-528: A fresh look to the cinema with improvised dialogue, rapid changes of scene, and shots that broke the common 180° axis of camera movement . In many films of the French New Wave, the camera was used not to mesmerize the audience with elaborate narrative and illusory images, but rather to play with audience expectations. Godard was arguably the movement's most influential figure; his method of filmmaking, often used to shock and awe audiences out of passivity,

270-563: A major part in the French New Wave by allowing for a freer form of shooting 35mm fiction films. Later 16mm silent models such as the 1960 Eclair NPR (aka "Eclair 16" or "Eclair Coutant") and the 1971 Eclair ACL were documentary cinema favorites. The NPR also saw considerable use in television production and was the standard camera used by 16mm film crews in the BBC's Film Department. Due to its light weight and ergonomic design, which housed

315-400: A much more comfortable and contemporary form of production. Charlie Chaplin , Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Howard Hawks , John Ford, Sam Fuller and Don Siegel were held up in admiration. French New Wave is influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema . In a 1961 interview, Truffaut said that "the 'New Wave' is neither a movement, nor a school, nor a group, it's

360-522: A new means of expression on the same level as painting and the novel ... a form in which and by which an 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 is why I would like to call this new age of cinema the age of the caméra-stylo. " Some of the most prominent pioneers among the group, including François Truffaut , Jean-Luc Godard , Éric Rohmer , Claude Chabrol , and Jacques Rivette , began as critics for

405-454: A post-World War II France, filmmakers sought low-budget alternatives to the usual production methods, and were inspired by the generation of Italian Neorealists before them. Half necessity and half vision, New Wave directors used all that they had available to channel their artistic visions directly to the theatre. Finally, the French New Wave, as the European modern Cinema , is focused on

450-566: The Cinémathèque Française , were the dual father figures of the movement. These men of cinema valued the expression of the director's personal vision in both the film's style and script. Truffaut also credits the American film Little Fugitive (1953) by Ruth Orkin , Ray Ashley and Morris Engel with helping to start the French New Wave, when he said: "Our New Wave would never have come into being, if it hadn't been for

495-473: The " new sincerity " subculture within the U.S. that involve deliberately defying certain critical expectations in filmmaking. Alexandre Astruc 's manifesto "The Birth of a New Avant-Garde: The Camera-Stylo", published in L'Écran on 30 March 1948, outlined some of the ideas that were later expanded upon by François Truffaut and the Cahiers du cinéma . It argues that "cinema was in the process of becoming

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540-673: The 18-meter still camera rolls into 120-meter rolls for use as motion picture film, and pushed it to ASA 800 during development. A handheld Eclair camera was used in the shower scene in the 1960 film Psycho . An Eclair 16 was used by L.M. Kit Carson (and discussed, on camera) in Jim McBride 's ground-breaking film, David Holzman's Diary (1967). Two years later, the NPR was chosen by director Michael Wadleigh to shoot his documentary Woodstock . Wadleigh used sixteen NPR cameras. In Woodstock: From Festival to Feature , he explained some of

585-462: The 21st century. The movies featured unprecedented methods of expression, such as long tracking shots (like the famous traffic jam sequence in Godard's 1967 film Weekend ). Also, these movies featured existential themes, often stressing the individual and the acceptance of the absurdity of human existence. Filled with irony and sarcasm, the films also tend to reference other films. Many of

630-532: The French New Wave films were produced on tight budgets, often shot in a friend's apartment or yard, using the director's friends as the cast and crew. Directors were also forced to improvise with equipment (for example, using a shopping cart for tracking shots. ) The cost of film was also a major concern; thus, efforts to save film turned into stylistic innovations. For example, in Jean-Luc Godard 's Breathless ( À bout de souffle ), after being told

675-543: The French author Léon Sazie in the Paris-based newspaper Le Matin. The movies would go on to be very successful commercially, but Sazie came to feel that they were too different from his idea for the series, and so sued the director, Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset , and the Eclair company for excessive alteration of the source material. The courts ruled that 6,000 francs were to be paid to Sazie in damages, but Eclair appealed

720-467: The French product with minor differences) were manufactured simultaneously for a few years until Éclair-Debrie (UK) Ltd ceased activities in 1973. Production then continued in France with a good degree of success, but the company eventually declined in the late-1970s and early-1980s until it was eventually sold to Aaton S.A. in 1986 who ceased all camera production, offering only a license for maintenance of

765-662: The Left Bank filmmakers). Roud described a distinctive "fondness for a kind of Bohemian life and an impatience with the conformity of the Right Bank, a high degree of involvement in literature and the plastic arts , and a consequent interest in experimental filmmaking ", as well as an identification with the political left . The filmmakers tended to collaborate with one another. Jean-Pierre Melville , Alain Robbe-Grillet , and Marguerite Duras are also associated with

810-461: The New Wave directors in that they practiced cinematic modernism . Their emergence also came in the 1950s and they also benefited from the youthful audience. The two groups, however, were not in opposition; Cahiers du cinéma advocated for Left Bank cinema. Left Bank directors include Chris Marker , Alain Resnais , and Agnès Varda (Varda's husband, Jacques Demy , is sometimes grouped with

855-474: The New Wave was to some extent an exercise by the Cahiers writers in applying this philosophy to the world by directing movies themselves. Apart from the role that films by Jean Rouch have played in the movement, Chabrol's Le Beau Serge (1958) is traditionally (but debatably) credited as the first New Wave feature. Agnès Varda 's La Pointe Courte (1955) was chronologically the first, but did not have

900-458: The New Wave way of filmmaking often presented a documentary style. The films exhibited direct sounds on film stock that required less light. Filming techniques included fragmented, discontinuous editing, and long takes. The combination of realism, subjectivity, and authorial commentary created a narrative ambiguity in the sense that questions that arise in a film are not answered in the end. Although naturally associated with Francophone countries,

945-466: The World Pictures / Peerless studio on Lewis Street was located. This article about a film studio is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Eclair (company) Eclair, formerly Laboratoires Éclair, began as a film production, film laboratory, and movie camera manufacturing company established in Épinay-sur-Seine , France by Charles Jourjon in 1907. What remains of

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990-456: The adaptation of safe literary works into unimaginative films. Along with Truffaut, a number of writers for Cahiers du cinéma became leading New Wave filmmakers, including Jean-Luc Godard , Éric Rohmer , Jacques Rivette , and Claude Chabrol . The associated Left Bank film community included directors such as Alain Resnais , Agnès Varda , Jacques Demy and Chris Marker . Using portable equipment and requiring little or no set up time,

1035-431: The audience directly , were radically innovative at the time. Classic French cinema adhered to the principles of strong narrative, creating what Godard described as an oppressive and deterministic aesthetic of plot. In contrast, New Wave filmmakers made no attempts to suspend the viewer's disbelief; in fact, they took steps to constantly remind the viewer that a film is just a sequence of moving images, no matter how clever

1080-624: The business is a unit of Group fr:Ymagis , offering creative and distribution services for the motion pictures industries across Europe and North America such as editing, color grading , restoration, digital and theatrical delivery, and versioning. The company is currently made up of two entities: Eclair Cinema and Eclair Media. The company produced many silent shorts in France starting in 1908, and soon thereafter in America. The American division produced films from 1911-1914 such as Robin Hood , one of

1125-524: The case resulting in the amount to be paid increasing to 10,000 francs, with an additional 250 francs for any future violations. The company was acquired in late 1968 by UK-based Canadian film producer Harry Saltzman who then founded the Éclair-Debrie (UK) Ltd. company and moved production to the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Soremec-Cehess took over the French side of the company and resumed production in France, so English Eclair cameras (similar to

1170-405: The challenges he faced using a then seven-year-old camera in a manner that would have been unheard of for 35mm movie cameras, let alone the relatively untried NPR. French New Wave The New Wave ( French : Nouvelle Vague , French pronunciation: [nuvɛl vaɡ] ), also called the French New Wave , is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement

1215-735: The early-1980s came too late to save the company from bankruptcy and were hardly produced, if at all : the Eclair EX16 (similar to ACL with fixed viewfinder and 24/25fps fixed motor) and the Eclair PANORAM (first dual format 16+ Super16 camera with "Varigate" system). The instant clip-on design of the camera magazine of the Caméflex and later the NPR, ACL, EX16 and PANORAM models' coaxial pre-threaded loop magazines revolutionized filmmaking, in particular documentary films , since magazine changes could now be made in seconds without

1260-495: The famous film magazine Cahiers du cinéma . Cahiers co-founder and theorist André Bazin was a prominent source of influence for the movement. By means of criticism and editorialization, they laid the groundwork for a set of concepts, revolutionary at the time, which the American film critic Andrew Sarris called auteur theory . (The original French La politique des auteurs , translated literally as "The policy of authors".) Bazin and Henri Langlois , founder and curator of

1305-469: The film spools at the back of the camera rather than on top, the NPR was seen as a considerable improvement over its predecessors. For 16mm cameramen out in the field, this ease of use and maneuverability was vital to capture the right shot, often in hostile conditions. NPR stands for N oiseless P ortable R eflex and ACL comes from the letters of the names of its designers A gusti (Austin) C oma and Jacques L ecoeur. The last models designed by Eclair in

1350-409: The film was too long and he must cut it down to one hour and a half he decided (on the suggestion of Jean-Pierre Melville ) to remove several scenes from the feature using jump cuts , as they were filmed in one long take. Parts that did not work were simply cut from the middle of the take, a practical decision, and also a purposeful stylistic one. The cinematic stylings of the French New Wave brought

1395-506: The film-maker passes "the essay attitude, thinking – in a novelist way – on his own way to do essays." The corresponding "right bank" group is constituted of the more famous and financially successful New Wave directors associated with Cahiers du cinéma ( Claude Chabrol , François Truffaut , and Jean-Luc Godard ). Unlike the Cahiers group, Left Bank directors were older and less movie-crazed. They tended to see cinema akin to other arts, such as literature. However, they were similar to

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1440-628: The first filmed versions of the classic story in 1912. Deutsche Eclair, later Decla-Film , was established as its German studio branch. In 1909, Eclair took part in the Paris Film Congress , an attempt by major European producers to form a cartel similar to the MPPC in America. Originally a film production company, Eclair started building cameras in 1912. An Eclair studio, the Eclair Moving Picture Company,

1485-561: The history of cinema . The term was first used by a group of French film critics and cinephiles associated with the magazine Cahiers du cinéma in the late 1950s and 1960s. These critics rejected the Tradition de qualité ("Tradition of Quality") of mainstream French cinema, which emphasized craft over innovation and old works over experimentation. This was apparent in a manifesto-like 1954 essay by François Truffaut , Une certaine tendance du cinéma français , where he denounced

1530-564: The many existing cameras. The film processing and post-production side of Éclair continues to operate. Among their early models was the Caméréclair of 1928, then the Camé 300 Réflex, both successful studio cameras. Their real breakthrough design, the Caméflex (shoulder-held portable 35mm camera with instant-change magazines, with later 16/35mm dual format option) introduced in 1947, played

1575-475: The movement has had a continual influence within various other cinephile cultures over the past several decades inside of many other nations. The United Kingdom and the United States , both of them being primarily English-speaking , are of note. " Kitchen sink realism " as an artistic approach intellectually challenging social conventions and traditions in the U.K. is an example, as are some elements of

1620-421: The movement. Politically and financially drained, France tended to fall back on the old popular pre-war traditions. One such tradition was straight narrative cinema, specifically classical French film. The movement has its roots in rebellion against the reliance on past forms (often adapted from traditional novelistic structures), criticizing, in particular, the way these forms could force the audience to submit to

1665-561: The need to spend time threading the film through the camera. The ACL model used a focal plane shutter for exposure and a side-to-side oscillating mirror for reflex viewing to keep the camera body size to a minimum. Jean-Luc Godard used an Eclair Cameflex when filming Breathless in 1959. Godard wished to film using ambient light, and the Cameflex was the only motion picture camera capable of using ASA 400 35 mm Ilford HPS still camera film. Cinematographer Raoul Coutard spliced

1710-526: The support they received from their youthful audience. Most of these directors were born in the 1930s and grew up in Paris, relating to how their viewers might be experiencing life. With a high concentration on fashion, urban professional life, and all-night parties, the life of France's youth was exquisitely captured. The French New Wave was popular roughly between 1958 and 1962. The socio-economic forces at play shortly after World War II strongly influenced

1755-412: The technique as style itself. A French New Wave film-maker is first of all an author who shows in its film their own eye on the world. On the other hand, the film as the object of knowledge challenges the usual transitivity on which all the other cinema was based, "undoing its cornerstones: space and time continuity, narrative and grammatical logics, the self-evidence of the represented worlds." In this way

1800-429: The use of light and shadow. The result is a set of oddly disjointed scenes without an attempt at unity; or an actor whose character changes from one scene to the next; or sets in which onlookers accidentally make their way onto camera along with extras, who in fact were hired to do just the same. At the heart of New Wave technique is the issue of money and production value. In the context of social and economic troubles of

1845-485: The young American Morris Engel who showed us the way to independent production with [this] fine movie." The auteur theory holds that the director is the "author" of their movies, with a personal signature visible from film to film. They praised movies by Jean Renoir and Jean Vigo , and made then-radical cases for the artistic distinction and greatness of Hollywood studio directors such as Orson Welles , John Ford , Alfred Hitchcock and Nicholas Ray . The beginning of

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1890-407: Was abnormally bold and direct. Godard's stylistic approach can be seen as a desperate struggle against the mainstream cinema of the time, or a degrading attack on the viewer's supposed naivety. Either way, the challenging awareness represented by this movement remains in cinema today. Effects that now seem either trite or commonplace, such as a character stepping out of their role in order to address

1935-428: Was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconoclasm . New Wave filmmakers explored new approaches to editing , visual style, and narrative, as well as engagement with the social and political upheavals of the era, often making use of irony or exploring existential themes. The New Wave is often considered one of the most influential movements in

1980-527: Was established in Fort Lee, New Jersey . It suffered a devastating fire in 1914 in which many early film prints were lost . A western studio set was also established in Tucson, Arizona . Jules Brulatour was involved with the company and Dorothy Gibson one of its stars. Between 1911 and 1913, Eclair released a series of films revolving around the fictional character Zigomar that had been created in 1909 by

2025-427: Was more exclusive and included only Truffaut, Chabrol, Rivette, Rohmer, and himself, stating that " Cahiers was the nucleus" of the movement. Godard also acknowledged filmmakers such as Resnais, Astruc, Varda, and Demy as esteemed contemporaries, but said that they represented "their own fund of culture" and were separate from the New Wave. Many of the directors associated with the New Wave continued to make films into

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