“All you need is a gun and a girl” – according to director Jean-Luc Godard, these are the most important features for a good film. And indeed, some of the best known examples of the Nouvelle Vague, the French cinema of the 50s and 60s, such classics as “Le Mépris” („Contempt“) and “À Bout de Souffle” (“Breathless”) are based on this scheme. Babylon Mitte is currently screening a retrospective of the Nouvelle Vague with a selection of 27 outstanding films; among them movies by Francois Truffaut, André Bazin or Eric Rohmer and rarely shown directors like Jean Eustache. You’ll see an unforgettable Brigitte Bardot at the French Riviera, the innocent Jean Seberg wearing the legendary New York Herald Tribune shirt and – of course – Jean-Paul Belmondo, with lots of cigarettes. Lots of guns ‘n’ girls, thanks to Godard.
Nouvelle Vague at Babylon Mitte, Rosa-Luxemburg-Str.30, 10178 Berlin-Mitte; map
until 3.2.13
Text: Olga Schlosser
Published in Cee Cee #94 on 24.1.2013
