Jean-Luc Godard. Alain Resnais. François Truffaut. The names of these film directors are familiar to many cinema fans, and especially to fans of the French New Wave, a movement that began in the late 1950s and continued into the 1970s. The French New Wave, which prioritized self-expression and “real” life, also gave rise to the concept of the filmic auteur — that a film’s director was equivalent to its author, the sole creative voice behind its creation. That perspective has been challenged over the past few decades. A film, after all, requires the talents of dozens of individuals. “There’s only one woman [director] in the New Wave, basically,” says Ericka Knudson, visiting lecturer in cultures, societies and global studies at Northeastern University. “It’s Agnès Varda. And I thought, why is that? Cinema’s a collective art.”
A study in presence: Recentering the women of the French New Wave
