Richard Linklater has been on quite a kick recently with his latest films. Blue Moon detailed the opening night of the musical Oklahoma! and Larry Hart’s (Ethan Hawke) struggle with his collaborator Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott), moving on. His follow-up is Nouvelle Vague, aptly named as the film dives into the French New Wave movement. 

Guillaume Marbeck stars as Jean-Luc Godard, the famous French filmmaker, as he is making one of the quintessential films in the French New Wave movement, Breathless. Claude Chabrol’s Le Beau Serge is cited as the first in the movement back in 1958 and led French cinema through the 1970s. Linklater’s film focuses completely on Godard’s direction of Breathless and his working relationship with actor Jean Seberg (Zoey Deutch). 

Linklater uses style and aesthetics to bring the French New Wave feel to his film and, much like Blue Moon before it, is a piece that focuses specifically on one bit of art rather than the overarching ideas of French New Wave cinema. Seberg and Godard had a complicated relationship. She was, eventually, praised for her work on Breathless but she didn’t really understand what Godard was going for and, through Linklater’s film, it seems as if he doesn’t think Godard understood what he originally wanted either. 

But as always is the case with a Linklater movie, the visionary director and screenwriter brings his unique brand of comedy and style to each story he tells. Nouvelle Vague still has the heart of a Linklater film like Hit Man and School of Rock before it but his ability to focus on one specific moment in history with movies like Nouvelle Vague is part of what has made Linklater’s more recent films so fascinating to watch. 

He’s the kind of director who tackles larger films and stories that we all either love after seeing Linklater’s take on them or have loved before, like his upcoming Merrily We Roll Along. But Nouvelle Vague provides audiences with a deeper look at the love and dedication that went into movies like Breathless but also Linklater’s love of cinema and storytelling. 

Movies like this are two-fold. Yes, we’re learning a lot more about French New Wave and the idea of what made those movies such a staple in cinema and especially in how many view French films. But Novelle Vague is also a deeper look at the love that creatives like Linklater have for history and stories and everything that goes into some of our most beloved movies and stories out there. 

Nouvelle Vague isn’t as deeply resonating as Blue Moon but it is still an important film in Linklater’s body of work. If he continues to balance his original films and adaptations with very niche and specific histories like Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague, it will be a fascinating and brilliant turn for the Dazed and Confused director. 

So if you are a fan of Linklater or even just a fan of movies about the art of cinema, you’ll want to watch Nouvelle Vague. 

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