Key narrative and technical conventions of the French New Wave approach to film making

• Shot on location (authentic backgrounds and natural lighting)
• Non-professional actors
• Innovative camera techniques e.g. hand-held camera for intimate shots
• Jump cuts/fast paced editing
• Close ups on face
• Often focused on topics such as: religion, class struggle, sexuality, and youth culture.
• Improvisations
• Improvisation during shooting
• Breaking the forth wall
• Broke traditional narrative structures/reject “Old Hollywood” style
• Auteur theory

What’s the difference between the Left and Right Bank approach?

“Left bank” older and less tightly linked one of the major left bank film makers was Agnes Varda and Chris Marker, arguable the most experimentative with his 1962 film La Jetée consisting of only still images. Whereas, the “Right Bank”/Cahiers du cinéma consisted of directors such as Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. However the groups were not in opposition and instead praised one another.