French new wave - Chris Wiegand

The directors of the French New Wave were the original film geeks: a collection of celluloid-crazed cinphiles with a background in film criticism and a love for American auteurs. This guide reviews and analyses all the major films in the movement and profiles its principal stars, such as Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina and Brigitte Bardot. An introductory essay, Making Waves, examines the social context of the movement in France as well as the directors' considerable influence on later generations of film-makers across the globe.