or: Nouvelle Vague; The Nouvelle Vague film movement originated in France in the late 50s and early 60s. Young directors like Francois Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette all working as film critics for the journal Les Cahiers du Cinéma pitted themselves against the entrenched and predictable imagery and dramaturgy of the then commercial cinema. Aesthetic characteristics of the New Wave films were: kinetic camera movement with lots of exterior locations lending the films a raw, documentary quality.

Films of the Nouvelle Vague era include The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959), "Breathess" (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960), "Paris Belongs to Us" (Jacques Rivette, 1960), "La Femme Infidèle" (Claude Chabrol, 1969).