Godard's Treatment of the New Wave Heroine

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December 8, 2006 CMLT214 Sec 0103 Godard’s Treatment of the New Wave Heroine Jean-Luc Godard left his signature stamp on the films he directed in many ways, through both structural and narrative elements. However, his auteur directing is most apparent through his treatment of the movies’ heroines. His handling of the female characters is at the same time idiosyncratically unique, yet very much a part of the French New Wave movement. “Jean Pierre Melville was to say, ‘No New Wave style existed. If it were to exist it would purely and simply be the style of Godard’” (Ezra 172). However, throughout Godard’s films we can see commonalities centered on his female characters that shape the unique thumbprint of his directing beyond the New Wave style. Patricia in Breathless (1960), Nana in Vivre sa vie (1962) and Odile in Bande à part (1964) share details in both how they are filmed and the subject matter they present on film. This paper will explicitly discuss these three heroines, though other works by Godard will be mentioned. Godard focuses specifically on the female gaze, camera’s treatment of the female form, the woman in genre and the thematic component of female sexuality in his films. These elements converge to reveal stylistic techniques which run through the three aforementioned movies, creating a style representative of Godard as an auteur director. With regard to the female gaze, Godard highlights his heroines’ vulnerability and self-consciousness by showing them looking into mirrors at themselves, especially while they talk with their male counterparts. In Breathless, Michel stops in at an old girlfriend’s apartment, which is plastered with photos of her. Their conversation is held while the girl sits at her vanity table primping and dressing. She is so preoccupied that Michel has the time to steal some money from her purse. This sequence
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