Alfred Hitchcock's fascination with French culture emanates in nearly all of his films. Conversely, many aspects outlining the fundamental guidelines of the 1950's French film movement adopted quintessential "Hitchcockian" devices. Hitchcock's influence on French filmmakers shaped much of what's known as La Nouvelle Vague or, French New Wave. Post WWII France saw an influx of American made films immediately following the Liberation in 1944 as they had been banned during the reign of the Vichy Regime. The effects of this explosion sparked new life into French cinema. Hitchcock in particular played a key role in the development of modern French cinema as his films generated heated controversy among critics. Celebrated film theorist, Andre Bazin first scoffed at Hitchcock's filmmaking while younger, blossoming critics and filmmakers like Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Claude Chabrol praised his work as innovative and avant-garde. However, with time, Bazin and other detractors of Hitchcock's work changed their positions
[...] Thematically, Truffaut and Godard proved critics wrong who were unwilling to admit Hitchcock films held any gravity outside the genre of suspense and stylistic technique. Still, Hitchcock's revolutionary technical ability supersedes all. Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player institutes a technical style which disregarded traditional stylistic rules. When walking down the street with Lena, the audience listens to Charlie's thoughts as he builds up the courage to hold her hand. The camera veers its focus from a two-shot of the both of them to focus solely on Charlie. [...]
[...] Critics cringed at the notion of Hitchcock, the Hollywood technician/trickster/master of suspense be categorized as an “auteur de film.” Perhaps in lieu of the state of post-war France, the enthusiasm with which critics like Truffaut and Chabrol praised the so-called American director sparked discussion over French patriotism. Hollywood dominated the film industry both in the United States as well as internationally, a fact that many French critics regarded with disdain. Though a few film theory magazines remained, it wasn't until the cessation of print of the prominent Revue du Cinema in 1949 that public film forums hit rock bottom. [...]
[...] Truffaut, at the forefront of the group raised eyebrows and infuriated many French critics in his 1954 article Certaine Tendance du cinema François” or Certain Tendency of French Cinema.” In the piece Truffaut asserted that “French filmmaking [relied] heavily on stilted adaptations from novels or stage plays with the goal of impressing film festival juries.” He accused filmmakers of ignoring the “uniquely filmic possibilities” that cinema had to offer and instead opted for tired, formulated “literary equivalencies.” (Vest, 53). Though Truffaut had not yet expressed it, he was beginning to touch upon the highly experimental and personalized principles of the New Wave. [...]
[...] Godard expressed that sought to exclude la scripte from the hotel room in which the central scene was shot.” Not surprisingly, inaccuracies in continuity resulted, notably “where Patricia goes into the bathroom she is shown wearing a short-sleeved striped top which bears no correspondence to the long-sleeved striped top that she wears both before and after.” (MacCabe, 121). Additionally, there are several jump cuts that disorient the viewer's grounding of time and space within the room. Eyeline matches, where the camera focuses on the character looking at something then cuts to a shot of what they see are clearly mismatched. [...]
[...] Above all, the New Wavers emphasized the director as auteur, aimed to distinguish themselves from the commercialized and capitalistic sentiments of Hollywood and validate cinema as a true art form. Though Godard praised much of Hitchcock's work, he was highly critical of those showed unwavering admiration for a director whom many others accused of lacking interest in plausibility.” Godard supported Bazin's perspective in the early 1950's that Hitchcock's work was over-saturated with his unique technical style which overshadowed the thinly spun plots. [...]
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