Movie Review: In Nouvelle Vague, Richard Linklater captures a cinematic moment

Richard Linklater is not easy to find: we owe him both trilogies Before sunrise, before sunset et Until midnightknown Childhood yearsshot over the course of twelve years, several experimental short films and, of course, comedies as well Rock Academy. But that’s why this film expresses itself as an absolute admirer of Godard New wave where he plays the shootingHold your breath in Paris in the 1950s. So we follow the madness and power of this new cinema, and at the same time the gesture of the enthusiastic copyist who reproduces the scenes, the light and the black and white of the time.

Opinions of critics

Raphael Piraeus: “New wave it’s a film with an infectious joy, the lightness of which moved me deeply. While the biopic and remake format may, at first glance, confuse some or suggest that it is an impersonal work, it is not. The film explores themes dear to Richard Linklater, including the passage of time and youth. Time, moreover, is the real heart of the film: Godard’s character pursues the idea of ​​missing the “wave”, obsessed with this race against time. Through it, Linklater profoundly questions what it means to be a director and what the act of creating entails. It is this reflection, intimate and sincere, that gives the film all its resonance.“

Adrien Denuet : “New wave makes you want to go to the cinema. I went through it with the look of a kid watching a Disney movie. The film is a miracle, a kind of return to the original idea of ​​cinema, it seeks what, despite everything, has survived from this era. The movie is funny, and that needs to be emphasized. Because we tend to forget it, but I was suffocating was without a doubt the funniest film of Godard and perhaps even of the entire New Wave. This is a biopic not about a person, but about a film, or rather a moment in the cinema. Basically, this is a film about youth, about what it is, about nostalgia. The work is alive, funny, intellectual and deeply cinematic at the same time.”

Sound clip

• Trailer New wave de Richard Linklater

More information

• New wave Richard Linklater’s will be released in theaters on October 8, 2025