Nouvelle Vague (film)
| Nouvelle Vague | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Jean-Luc Godard |
| Produced by | Alain Sarde |
| Written by | Jean-Luc Godard |
| Starring |
Alain Delon Domiziana Giordano Jacque Dacqmine Christophe Odent |
| Cinematography | William Lubtchansky |
| Edited by | Jean-Luc Godard (uncredited) |
| Distributed by | Mercury Film Group |
|
Release date
|
May 23, 1990 (France) |
|
Running time
|
90 minutes |
| Country | France Switzerland |
| Language | French |
| Box office | 140,356 admissions (France) |
Nouvelle Vague (English: New Wave) is a 1990 French film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. It follows the story of hitchiker Lennox (Alain Delon) credited as "Lui" ("Him"), taken in by a wealthy industrialist, Elena Torlato-Favrini or "Elle" ("Her"), played by Domiziana Giordano. The film was entered into the 1990 Cannes Film Festival.
La Contessa Elena Torlato-Favrini (her last name taken from The Barefoot Contessa) is a wealthy Italian industrialist living in a sprawling estate near Lake Geneva, Switzerland. She is attended by Jules the Gardener, his wife Yvonne, their daughter Cécile, the chauffeur Laurent, and the mysterious Della La Rue (or "Della Street," a reference to Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason stories). At the film's opening, Elena goes for a drive by herself and encounters Roger Lennox (his last name taken from The Long Goodbye), an apparent drifter. Elena's trajectory is brought to an abrupt halt as she stops to help Roger, who has evidently been forced off the road by a truck (or is it the nearby tree?) and is severely incapacitated. Roger offers Elena his hand, and Elena accepts his offer (the "miracle of empty hands," borrowed from Diary of a Country Priest). The series of exchanges constituting their relationship begins.
The narrative continues with Roger now Elena's kept man. He dotes on her and is obedient to her retinue that includes Elena's lawyer Raoul Dorfman, Raoul's girlfriend, the Doctor (one of Elena's shareholders), and the Doctor's wife Dorothy Parker, a writer like her namesake. After a series of episodes in which both members of the couple express dissatisfaction with the other, and together ruminate on regret, Elena decides to take a boat across the lake to visit some friends. Roger obediently rows the boat, and stops when Elena wants to get in the water, but refuses to join her, citing inability to swim. In a mishap evocative of their first meeting, Roger falls into the water as Elena gets back into the boat. This time, Elena does not help, appearing indifferent to or even unaware of Roger's plight.
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