The New Wave (French: Nouvelle Vague), also called the French New Wave, is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favour of experimentation and a spirit of iconoclasm.
Filming techniques included fragmented, discontinuous editing, and long takes. The combination of realism, subjectivity, and authorial commentary created a narrative ambiguity in the sense that questions that arise in a film are not answered in the end. One of the key characteristics of the French New Wave is its rejection of past filmmaking, instead swapping in more experimental and avant-garde techniques.
Scorsese and Coppola, both who rose to fame in the 1970s, which is sometimes referred to as the American new wave, have mentioned the influence these French filmmakers had on their artistic and production style.
