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Director Richard Linklater has a varied filmography. Since his first hit movie Dazed and Confused in 1993, he has made mainstream films like School of Rock, Bad News Bears and Hit Man as well as celebrated dramas like his Before Trilogy and last November’s Blue Moon. Alongside this there have been a handful of more experimental projects like A Scanner Darkly and Boyhood. His latest somehow straddles all of these approaches at once as it leans toward the art house (it’s all in French for a start) while ultimately remaining quite accessible and breezy. 

The title clearly refers to the revolutionary European cinematic movement that started in the late fifties and early sixties and this is not an association this film wears with any subtly. The closing credits has a song where the phrase Nouvelle Vague is repeated over and over in the lyrics and this works as a bit of a microcosm of everything that plays out before it. To translate this to English as best I can it seems to effectively go ‘New wave, new wave, new wave, dooby do be do, new wave, new wave, la la la, this is the new wave’ and the whole movie essentially does the same thing. 

What we get in the narrative then is a depiction of the true birth of this style of filmmaking, specifically surrounding the making of the 1960 classic À Bout De Souffle. What’s more it’s all done in the same fashion. This is a tale of the making of Jean Luc Godard’s groundbreaking movie that ably apes every element of it in meticulous detail. 

What this means then is that you need to know À Bout De Souffle pretty well to properly appreciate this. In fact this is where it manages to be both inaccessible and easy viewing at the same time. If you are familiar with Godard, and this his first film in particular, then this is delightful escapism. If not then you might find it a little baffling. À Bout De Souffle itself is a curious piece being laid back in a way that totally defies its plot about a killer on the run from the police. It’s like Thelma and Louise made in the style of The Princess Diaries, and yet of course it’s not because it has a style completely of its own. I am a fan though; the nonchalant, noodling approach somehow works and it is all very cool (aside of that improvised bedroom scene that does go on a bit too long). 

You might think that copying this method so closely might distract but actually the free wheeling mood distracts less in Linklater’s homage than it does in the original. This said, while Goddard evidently worked in a very lackadaisical way (as entertainingly depicted here) to imitate this Linklater has clearly had to be incredibly methodical. The recreation of mid 20th Century Paris in particular is incredible. 

In places Nouvelle Vague (I’d still have liked a less on the nose title) feels a bit laboured. By way of example let me say that you’ll pick up how Wes Anderson was influenced by Godard here more than you ever will from any Godard movie. You do settle into Linklater’s imitative methods quickly though and there is fun to be had.

This is a nicer portrayal of Godard than in Michel Hazanavicius’ 2018 film Redoubtable. That movie showed a man becoming increasingly frustrated with his reputation but this one shows an artist with little to no pedigree at all. There is humour in seeing his desperation to build a name for himself while refusing to make any real effort to do so, which was a part of his genius. He is certainly objectionable but endearingly so and actor Guillaume Marbeck plays it well. Elsewhere in the mostly French cast Matthieu Penchinat stands out as Godard’s insouciant cameraman and Aubry Dullin is a charming Jean Paul Belmondo. Zoey Deutch is highly convincing as an alternately exasperated and amused Jean Seberg, not realising that this tiny side project she is involved in will become the movie that defines her. The whole thing is also supported by a nice ensemble. 

How this is ultimately remembered in Richard Linklater’s career remains to be seen but it is more evidence of an artist adding to his art form in surprising ways. It makes few concessions to its audience but it you are in the slightly niche demographic then it is a treat.