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4 GREAT NEW WAVES

By: Kenji

Freshness, vitality, sweeping away old unwanted stuffy traditions..

Here i’m gonna take the essentials from some countries that really made their mark in the 60s. While epitomising light spontaneity and a certain joie-de-vivre, the French had their intellectual left bank too. Agnes Varda’s La Pointe Courte (1956) places her as the mother (not grandmother!) of the Nouvelle Vague, though some have laid claims for Chabrol’s Le Beau Serge.

More narrative-driven, in Czechoslovakia the 60s and “Prague Spring” had a witty, sometimes darkly satirical, mischievous spirit.
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Spearheaded by Oshima and Imamura, following on from Crazed Fruit’s youthful panache in the 50s, the Japanese New Wave was politically confrontational, rebellious, disaffected and sexually edgy.

In Brazil directors like Rocha (with his vibrant and baroque self-confidence) were seeking a new distinctive indigenous and national voice with which to assert independence from colonialism, and other parts of Latin America took up Cinema Novo’s call. I’m allowing a little leeway, including Sganzerla’s Red Light Bandit, an underground offshoot

FRANCE
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
JAPAN
BRAZIL + LATIN AMERICA

suggestions welcome. The 60s was a time of wonderful vitality in the development of many national cinemas, a remarkable surge for neglected regions of the world, so this list, concentrating on certain major movements, doesn’t do justice to what was going on worldwide and the geographical spread, including Africa and Asian countries.

 

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Kenji

10Jun10

yes i did think of a wider selection, Dimitris, but as i'm far from an expert on the subject i thought i'd restrict it at the moment to the major ones i felt more comfortable with. No doubt some would expect Germany or UK too. The more i include, the harder the lists to manage and keep up with, but i'd be very interested in any other national or regional new wave lists, may yet add more as i don't want to imply a lack of international spread, as the 60s was a great time for many previously neglected national cinemas.

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Dimitris Psachos

10Jun10

can we also add unofficial new waves e.g. Poland, Philippines, Greece, Argentina, why not Lithuania, India, Iran, Taiwan? perhaps examples of free-spirited films against the norms of studios and cinematic rules?

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Kenji

10Jun10

Yes, well Sganzerla may be off at a tangent but he's closer and more indebted to the sweeping changes of 60s new waves than classical cinema, and anyway i'm allowing a little leeway.

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Franklinton Underground Cinema

10Apr10

I love early Foreman films.

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