Nouvelle Vague2025-10-02
Vancouver, BC
It's not where you take things from — it's where you take them to.
This made me realize I had no idea what I was doing when I first watched Breathless a few years ago. While Godard is not my favourite from the French New Wave, and I would actually lean towards directors that would be considered forefathers of French New Wave — primarily Jean-Pierre Melville and Robert Bresson — it's easy to come away from this one impressed with both Godard's liberated approach to filmmaking and Linklater's devotion to honouring said movement. I do wish Breathless was fresher in my memory for this viewing, but this film is a great reminder that context is everything in filmmaking. It's always a pleasure watching a director unabashedly putting their reverence for something on full display. Others toy around it, making small references to their heroes, like Spielberg with John Wayne and David Lynch in The Fabelmans, but Linklater is effectively making it plain as day as here.
My first film of VIFF 2025! Watched at the Vancouver Playhouse. Great start to the festival. This was opening night, with lots of industry folks milling about. I felt like I was crashing the party here — just a guy in a ball cap and sneakers surrounded by people dressed for a shindig. A number of special guests spoke before the screening, including Kyle Fostner, Executive Director of VIFF, who delivered a very powerful message calling upon cinema and the arts as more important than ever in these strange times we find ourselves in. I was supposed to see this on Saturday, but I noticed this screening pop up on the VIFF site yesterday. That would probably explain why this felt like an industry mixer. Better timing tonight, with the Jays playing game 1 of the ALDS on Saturday.