A bout de souffle

Directly challenging old, traditional French cinema (le cinema du papa)
To challenge morality itself and to align the spectator with the antagonist
A focus on youthful and existentialism - it is unclear why Michel kills the police officer, reflects the changing expectations of French society
Rejects the structure of classical Hollywood narrative

Jump cuts added by Goddard for reasons of length… an example of serendipity!
Filmed wild style/guerilla style on the streets of Paris. More authentic… and cheaper!
Written by Francois Truffaut, another French new wave director!
Cahiers du Cinema - a French film magazine still going today! The writers were obsessed with auteur theory, and American auteurs such as Alfred Hitchcock
Goddard was communist and highly politically motivated

Jump cuts: a film making mistake used for dramatic purposes. Confusing and alienating
Aesthetic: cars. A blunt narrative device
Guns: 'all you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun'
Postmodern films: deliberately break the rules, eg breaking the fourth wall
Cool young actors. E.g. Jean Seaburg, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Brigette Bardot

A naturalistic film that uses improvisational performance style. Yet there are expressive elements, such as the eyebrow scene…
Edgy elements, such as a criminal protagonist, and sexual situations
Repeated motifs from other films, including intertextual references to Humphry Bogart

L’age chien

To explore the subconscious mind and subconscious desires, the central concept of surrealism
To go against old cinema, narrative cinema, Hollywood cinema
To shock and discomfort the audience. Transgression: to go beyond socially accepted norms
To criticise established French institutions: the church, the government/the state/ the bourgeoisie and the established order

Bunuel and Dali associated with the surrealist movement, and associated with artists like Renee Magritte and especially Max Ernst
Bunuel grew up in a tiny Spanish town called Calanda. The drums at the end of L’age D’or are a direct reference to a Calanda tradition
L’age d’or instigated riots in Paris, and Bunuel and Dali had to hit from crowds with a bucket of rocks. The film was banned in many countries, including France for a few years, and the UK until 1986
The Surrealist group collaborated with the communist party, associated with left wing politics

Expressive films, yet there are some naturalistic elements, such as the use of relatable settings and naturalistic performance
A surrealist aesthetic. Bleeding donkeys, priests being chucked out of windows, cows in beds… dreamlike and funny!
Transgressive imagery. Sexual assault, ants spilling from a wound, an eyeball being split open, and overt blasphemy