Auteur Theory in French New Wave and Italian Neorealist Film

Auteur Theory in Godard and Truffaut

Auteur theory is familiar to anyone who is a fan of French cinema, because the term originated as a description of a certain type of French film. Essentially, it describes a style directly connected to the director — one who is typically involved in both writing the screenplay and directing the film. In Week End by Jean-Luc Godard and The 400 Blows by François Truffaut, the director was involved in the writing as well. Both directors were also proponents of auteur cinema, so their films carry a personal flair that reflects elements of themselves.

It can be argued that the Truffaut film is the stronger representation of the auteur style between the two, because he drew directly on scenes from his own life and those of his friends. Just as Tom Sawyer was a blend of the real life of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and his contemporaries, Truffaut wove himself into what would become one of the most beloved of all French cinematic works. This directorial presence is especially visible in the scenes in which Antoine speaks to the psychiatrist. He tells his story in a fragmentary way — just as someone would naturally remember events. It seems that Truffaut may be, at least in part, telling his own story, or drawing on scraps he heard from friends about their experiences. Whatever the source, these glimpses feel like genuine memories.

Godard, by contrast, captures a kind of dark hilarity in his film. He liked to think of himself as an observer and analyst of real life. Susan Sontag quoted him as saying that "we novelists and filmmakers are condemned to an analysis of the world." The movie is built on a relatively absurd plot and some unlikely scenarios, but one extended scene seems to embody the auteur movement most fully. In one of the most famous traffic sequences in cinema history, Godard presents a largely silent shot of the protagonists' car inching through a traffic jam. As with most traffic jams, the other drivers are upset and impatient — until they reach the cause. An entire family has been killed in an automobile accident.

This scene feels particularly real. It is the director's vision of the reality of a tragic incident: people cannot pause from their own miserable lives long enough to acknowledge the passing of a family. Godard seems to be saying that people need to take stock of their surroundings and stop being so consumed by their own concerns. In fact, that appears to be the point of the entire film. The man and woman race around frantically, commit murder to claim a dead man's fortune, and ultimately find themselves the possible victims of a kind of cosmic justice. It is a reality that Godard paints through his view of what the world is, and what he believes must become of those who selfishly use others for personal gain.

The only true continuity between the two films may be that each director places parts of himself on screen — though, of course, this can probably be said of most filmmakers. The psychiatrist scenes in Truffaut's film, and the slowly traversed traffic jam in Godard's, both seem to reflect a direct link back to their respective directors.

Realism and the French New Wave

Both films raise questions about how realism was used and how they served as stylistic examples of the French New Wave. Godard was a proponent of this movement because he had first been a film critic before becoming a director, as had Truffaut. Bazin discussed the "historical, social and economic combination" of elements that constituted realism (19), arguing that a film should convey a reality in its production and direction that had been absent from all but the Italian neorealist films. In The 400 Blows, Truffaut reaches for this kind of realism throughout the film, especially in its final shot. Godard, meanwhile, continuously places his characters in situations that may seem ridiculous but nonetheless feel authentic — as though he is simply following a couple on a wild, chaotic outing.

French New Wave films were very much a sign of the times. Across the globe, people were embracing a new sense of freedom, driven at least in part by the post-war era. Audiences were more free-spirited and wanted their art to reflect that spirit.