‘Nouvelle Vague (New Wave)’ Review: Richard Linklater Channels His Inner French Cinephile with Impeccably ‘Breathless’ Recreation [A-] Cannes
“The best way to criticize a film is to make one.”
Jean-Luc Godard’s famous quote, among many others, finds its way early in Nouvelle Vague (New Wave), the new film by Richard Linklater that details the making of Godard’s 1960 debut feature film Breathless, a film that broke cinema conventions, created new ones and the one that would cement his place in the French New Wave of cinema alongside Francois Truffaut, Jacques Rivette, Claude Chabrol and Éric Rohmer and more.
Literally dozens more players from the New Wave age make appearances here, camera facing in a way that feels very Godard himself, and with title cards not dissimilar to Wes Anderson films, just a bit more rustic. The film, which world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival opens, no less, at the Cannes Film Festival in one of Linklater’s cleverest, and more fortuitous, choices.
In 1959, Godard (played here with eerie uncanniness by Guillaume Marbeck in one of my favorite performances of the year so far) had made a few shorts and industrial films but had the bravado of a seasoned filmmaker. Cocky to a fault, and without warrant (yet), he lagged behind his fellow Cahiers du cinéma critics – Truffaut had made the classic 400 Blows at this point – and felt like he was standing on the shore as if he had missed the wave. It shook his confidence but bolstered his braggadocious in a way that convinced producer George de Beauregard (Bruno Dreyfürst) to fund Godard’s feature, a mere kernel of an idea based on a news story of a gangster and his girlfriend and that’s it. Hell bent on defying convention with no real dialogue (it would all be dubbed later), guerrilla filming on the streets of Paris with war cameraman Raoul Coutard (Matthieu Penchinat) and assistant director Pierre Rissient (Benjamin Clery), infuriating his cast, financiers and literally everyone associated with the film with his laissez-faire style of shooting, sometimes wasting entire days with no footage or speeding through one or two takes only (David Fincher could never).
Linklater’s decision to cast largely unknowns (even by French standards) proves to be one of his best choices including Aubry Dullin as an absolute dead ringer for Breathless star Jean-Paul Belmondo. For Hollywood star Jean Seberg, who’s been portrayed on screen before by the likes of Kristen Stewart, Linklater employs American actress Zoey Deutch (Juror #2, Not Okay) who strikes a remarkable resemblance to the Iowa-born actress who rose to fame starring in Otto Preminger’s 1957 Joan of Arc film Saint Joan. The chemistry between Marbeck’s Godard and Deutch’s Seberg crackles as the real life behind the scenes tête à tête between the duo was legendary in terms of director/star clashes. Seberg attempts to levy her ‘hand picked by Preminger’ status in the face of Godard’s limited directorial experience, creating an almost rom-com nature to their minor warfare. It’s not quite a ‘will they or won’t they’ in that regard but as a battle of wills it’s a delicious watch.
The exhaustively researched screenplay by Holly Gent and Vince Palmo, with dialogue and adaptation by Michèle Halberstadt and Laetitia Masson, translates the spiritual mood of Breathless while giving us some incredibly cheeky humor, including the now oft-used phrase “It’s no Citizen Kane” not once but twice to describe some top tier and not so top tier works. David Chambille’s gorgeous black-and-white photography snaps and crackles like it was shot on film stock and sets by Katia Wyszkop stunningly recreate Paris exteriors (with the help of extensive VFX) make every moment in Nouvelle Vague feel like a time portal.
There’s also something very symbiotic about Linklater tackling Godard’s breakthrough; it makes me think of the director’s own debut feature, 1990’s Slacker, which also worked without a conventional screenplay or storyboard and often created in the moment, or nearly any of his ‘hang out’ films like Dazed and Confused. While not thematically similar to Breathless, it was a foundational film that turned that decade into a new wave of independent film that exploded onto the scene and included Steven Soderbergh, whose debut sex, lies, and videotape, won the Palme d’Or the year prior.
There’s a breezy nature to Nouvelle Vague that, while it speaks directly to the Criterion Closet set, to an adventurous newcomer to the history of the French New Wave will be easily entertained and inspired by. Linklater’s behind the scenes take on one of cinema’s most pivotal moments could hold a gatekeeping exclusivity in the hands of another director but his is a welcoming gateway to the world it’s showing, giving us a peek at watching artists at work, finding humor in exasperation and marveling in an act of discovery. It’s what makes the film what it is, an invitation.
Grade: A-
This review is from the 2025 Cannes Film Festival where Nouvelle Vague premiered In Competition. Netflix will release the film theatrically in the U.S.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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