The emergence of the "New Wave" has a specific historical background, which is that after the Second World War, the long-term rigid system of the society caused the disillusionment of the young generation.First of all, the fall of fascism and the historic trial dealt a severe blow to the international leftist forces.Afterwards, the death of Stalin and the re-evaluation of him made the leftist forces fall into a daze, and the disgraceful Algeria War and the Vietnam War once again made the centrists start to feel disappointed.At this time, a whole generation of young people regarded politics as "funny tricks".Literary and artistic works at that time began to pay attention to these young people and describe these people.This became a special phenomenon of literature and art in this period: it was called "Beat Generation" in the United States, "Angry Youth" in Britain, and "Pain of the Century" or "New Wave" in France. ; Therefore, in the "New Wave" films, from the theme to the plot, from the style to the way of expression, they all bear the imprint of this era.

The 5 years in the development of the "New Wave": 1958 was the year of birth, Truffaut filmed "Naughty Ghost", Chabrol filmed "Pretty Serge", two debut novels came out; 1959 was the year of happiness, Truffaut won the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival for "Random", which marked the "New Wave" who praised Bazin as their spiritual father.Bazin was born in 1918 and died in 1958, the year the "New Wave" cinema was born.Although he did not see this new film movement with his own eyes, his theory pioneered the "New Wave"; "Cinema Handbook" gathered young film critics who later became the masters of "New Wave" films ("Cinema Handbook" is still an important theoretical publication of French film).Bazin's theory caused a sensation in the West in the 1950s, which impacted the orthodox "montage" theory.Bazin's theory is mainly manifested in two aspects:

* "Film is the asymptote of reality" In "Ontology of Photographic Image", Bazin put forward the aesthetic principle that "the aesthetic feature of photography lies in its ability to reveal the truth".He said: "...the camera lens has got rid of the old prejudices and cleared the spiritual rust on the object of our senses. Only this kind of indifferent lens can return the world to its innocent face, attract my attention, and thus arouse my attention. nostalgia".Bazin's theory also sees the inherent ability of film itself to capture nature and life from the differences between film and literature, drama, painting, etc.For example, compared with drama, film breaks through the sense of distance between the audience and the stage, and thus is closer to life; compared with painting, motion photography (image) has an essential objectivity and vividness; , visual and literary image more real intuitive experience and so on.From this, Bazin came to the conclusion that the first original feature of film art is the feature of documentary.It is closer to life and reality than any art.Bazin's "film is the asymptote of reality" is known as the slogan of "realism".The Italian neorealist films provided evidence for his theory.

Bazin commented on the new realism film: "It is a series of specific moments in life without distinction between primary and secondary: ontological equality fundamentally breaks the category of dramatic front."The film runs counter to the interlocking drama plot and breaks with the drama.There is no story, there never was a story.There are only situations with no beginning, no end, no beginning, no middle, and no end.Only life flows on the screen.Will Bazin's theory of realism make art become naturalistic, and will it lead to the cancellation of art? While opposing dramatization and storytelling, Bazin reminds people not to misunderstand the meaning of realism. He points out: "Movies" In the end, it is to make life itself a colorful scene, to make life look like a scene in the mirror of the movie."This is essentially the same as what we say "art originates from life and is higher than life".Among the works of the "New Wave", Tchanfer's "Random" directly practiced Bazin's theory, and it is a film that can well illustrate Bazin's theory. "Being Unreasonable" describes a 12-year-old boy, Antona, who escaped twice and lived on the street because he did not get the understanding and care of his parents and teachers. He was interrogated by the police and psychologists for theft and sent to a labor camp. , and then escaped to the sea.Truffaut broke the traditional narrative technique and kept the narrative language of the film on the asymptote of life, forming a new artistic style.At the same time, the film generated huge repercussions and popularity in the international film circle, and laid the foundation for the rise of the "New Wave".

＊The theory of mise-en-scène The history of film forming art is the history in which the nature of film is known.There are two basic characteristics of film art: first, the harmonious fusion of picture (light, color, shadow, space screen) and sound (sound, music, voice-over), which replaces the art of fiction with the audio-visual effects produced by real time and space. Second, it enjoys the cutting and assembling of time and space, replacing the time and space constraints in drama art with the freedom of montage.The art of film combines the freedom of time and space enjoyed in the art of fiction with the visual and auditory imagery of the art of drama to form a unique art.Some people see the charm brought by montage thinking to movies, and regard this method of combining visual images and auditory effects as the nature of film art, and generalize the basic narrative grammar of movies into montage.The popular dissemination of the theory of montage, "cross-camera montage", "parallel montage" and "juggling montage" in movies are refurbished.In the 1930s, the expression technique of montage reached the peak of maturity.However, it soon became deadlocked with abuse, revealing its one-sidedness.

According to Bazin, "narrative authenticity is in direct opposition to perceptual authenticity, and perceptual authenticity comes first from space."The processing method of montage theory is to "narrate events", which inevitably requires a large number of divisions of space and time, thus destroying the perceptual reality.On the contrary, depth-of-field shots are always "recording events", which "respect the real space and time of sensibility" and require "preservation of objects in the same spatial identity without discrimination". Bazin hopes that film workers recognize the film itself Inherent in the original power, he believes that explaining and elucidating meanings requires artistic skills, but it also requires artistic skills to show meanings through unmodified pictures. All of these constitute Bazin's theory of "scene control", which is also called It is the "depth of field shot" theory or "long shot" theory. Bazin's "scene scheduling theory" is opposed to the montage theory in almost all aspects.Montage divides time and space for the purpose of telling stories, while mise-en-scène pursues the relative unity of time and space without artificial explanation; the narrative nature of montage determines the director’s self-expression in film art, and the recording nature of mise-en-scène determines The director's self-elimination; montage theory emphasizes artificial skills outside the screen, while mise-en-scène emphasizes the inherent original power of the screen; Meaning, it has instantaneousness and randomness; montage guides the audience to make choices, while scene scheduling prompts the audience to make choices.The most meaningful change brought about by this theory is the change in the relationship between the director and the audience.The kind of montage art full of ax can only deepen the absurdity and deceitfulness of this position, and always keep the audience in a passive position.The theory of "scene scheduling" allows the audience to "freely choose their own interpretation of things and events" out of consideration for the audience's psychological reality.This theory influenced a whole generation.Truffaut is a loyal disciple of Bazin. He said: "There is no correct picture, only the picture is correct".Godard said: "Movie is the truth at 24 frames per second".Their film concepts are in the same strain as Bazin's mise-en-scène theory.

The "New Wave" Tai Lu Fu and others did not go to a special film school or receive special training.Their understanding and learning of films came from watching films in French film archives.They learned how not to make movies from bad movies when they didn't know how to make movies.Especially the kind of "high-quality movies" they are fighting against, the kind that rely on huge investment, reliable stars, a production system based on director qualifications, a large number of artificial means such as sets, and storylines to attract people. And the long production cycle of the film, etc., in their view, this is no different from Hollywood's production. The "New Wave" puts forward: "The most important thing in making a film is not to make it, but to be the producer of the film."Godard exclaimed: "To make a film is to write."Truffaut declared: "You should shoot another kind of thing with another spirit, you should abandon expensive studios... you should go to the streets or even real houses to shoot...".When they got the camera themselves, they adopted a completely different production method from "high-quality movies": relying on a small budget, relying on the selection of non-professional actors, relying on the production method based on the director's personal style, and using a large number of live scenes The filming relies on non-plot and non-story, breaking the concept of drama based on the law of conflict, and the film production cycle is short, etc.That's why people say: "The New Wave is first and foremost a revolution in filmmaking techniques and methods."It hit French Hollywood-style "good movies" hard.