Not in my wildest dreams would I have expected to walk a red carpet in 2025, yet, with some major caveats, just a couple of weeks ago this non-existant dream came true.
After securing some shockingly cheap tickets for the BFI London Film Festival a week earlier, me and my Dad made the 20 minute trip to the south bank of the river Thames, shirking the afformentioned carpet before making our way into an auditorium far too big for Nouvelle Vagues 4:3 aspect ratio.
As youve probably guessed from the aspect ratio Richard Linklaters new film (one of two coming out this year) Nouvelle Vague is a niche artsy flick. This, however does not stop me from proclaiming the black and white French language picture a perfect film. While it isnt five stars by any means of the imagine the movie has an aim, to tell the compelling story of the somewhat unorthodox making of Jean-Luc Godards Breathless - and that - it does without without even the slightest hint of a flaw.
This is where I must admit that I am somewhat of a film-bro lightweight. I have not watched Breathless or any other film from the titular New Wave for that matter, but while The New Yorker describes Nouvelle Vague as Linklaters big thank you to Godard - which it certainly is - however I reserve the right to note that it holds up perfectly as a delightful and pleasing story.
The casting is excellent. Two men without wikipedia pages: Guillaume Marbec (Godard) and Audrey Dullin (then-not-so-famous actor Jean-Paul Belmondo) play the lead male roles to a tee. Zoey Deutch, who plays actress Jean Seberg is exceptional too.
If I may, I plan on going on a bit of a tangent here. Jean Seberg was one of the stars of Breathless as well as being a prominent character in Nouvelle Vague, but her life would probably make for a far more interesting movie than either of the two (I should probably watch Breathless before I make that claim but cest la vie). She married three men (two with wikipedia pages), kind of married a fourth, and had two children, one with her husband Romain Gary and the other with Mexican revolutionary Carlos Nevarra. After donating over $10,000 to the Black Panther party she became a major target of the FBI. They stalked her interminably and practically blacklisted her from Hollywood. They even ran a fake news story in Newsweek magazine falsey claiming her second child - whom she was pregnant with at the time - a Black Panther. News of this story sent her into premature labour and her daughters eventual still birth. Romain Gary would go on to say that Seberg had repeatedly commited suicide on the anniversary of this day. After nine days of disappearence in 1979 Sebergs decomposing body was found in the back of her Renault along with a note adressed to her son. Charges where filed against persons unkown for "non-assistance of a person in danger."
Point is: the performances are great.
Despite the distinct lack of colour and English my uncultered mind was still able to get completely lost in the story and the world of 1950s Paris with Godards quirky style of filmaking being a reliable source of both intrigue and comedy. This is, after all, a very funny movie. From Godards complete ignorance of film production norms, to Sebergs continual annoyance, there is plenty to laugh at, as in many of Linklaters films.
To end this review I shall present a fun fact: Daimonds are the hardest minerals in the Mohs scale.