Various: Paris vu par (1965)

 

It was Barbet Schroeder's idea to give a bit of pep to the Nouvelle Vague by having a number of players – we can hardly call them 'members' as this was never a movement – make a movie. And the result was six shorts by noted directors, each taking a part of Paris in which Paris vu par was made: Saint-Germain des Prés (Jean Douchet); Gare du Nord (Jean Rouch); Rue Saint-Denis (Jean-Daniel Pollet); Place de l'Etoile (Eric Rohmer); Montparnasse and Levallois (Jean-Luc Godard); and Pharmacie la Muette (Claude Chabrol). In all, the six films last 95 minutes and are an excellent display of the cinematic talent of the time.

Two of the shorts end in death, two in broken relationships, two prominently show street scenes, and two essentially men at work. Douchet shows a one-night-stand in which the man says he's going to Mexico, although he's in fact a model in a life class; Rouch has a woman arguing with her partner about changing their lives, although when she's presented with the opportunity she turns it down: oddly, this seems very Rohmerian, concerning an essentially philosophical issue; Pollet again turns to Claude Malki as a shy person reluctant to enjoy the pleasures of the prostitute he's paid; Rohmer, with his paranoid shirt salesman, seems to be suggesting a man-to-man confrontation is to be avoided, whereas man-to-woman handle accidents in a very civil fashion; in Godard's short, as in Montparnasse where the metal sculptor throws his fickle girlfriend out, in Levallois her car bodywork lover does the same; and finally Chabrol's film has the son of an endlessly arguing couple (Chabrol himself and his own wife (and actrice fétiche) Stéphane Audran) wearing ear plugs to silence the rowing and so not hear his mother's cries when she falls down the stairs and cracks her skull – when the son leaves the house, ironically he stands by Pharmacie la Muette – La Muette is an area of Paris, the silence ear plugs give, and the permanent state of his mother.

Brilliant stuff, but was it impossible to find a female director, such as Agnès Varda?

Jean-Daniel Pollet's L'Amour c'est gai, l'amour c'est triste (1971)

After seeing Méditerranée and L'Ordre by Jean-Pollet, indeed after seeing his grave in Cadenet (Vaucluse), it came as some surprise to learn that the director I'd associated with avant-garde films also made weird situation comedies. I can't imagine Philippe Sollers or any of the Tel quel team heralding this film as a masterpiece, but...

We have something of a French version of a Broadway farce,  a vaudeville, with the shy, clown-like tailor Léon (Claude Melki) living in a two-room flat with his sister Marie (Bernadette Lafont), who pretends to be a fortune teller but is in reality a prostitute with her 'boyfriend' Maxime (Jean-Pierre Marielle) as her pimp, which Léon only latterly discovers. And then the unfortunate Arlette (Chantal Goya) arrives from Morlaix carrying little physical but much mental baggage and Léon falls in love with her but is unable to express it.

There are many shenanigans, Arlette is substituted as a prostitute but (unknown to her) Léon pays to would-be johns' money to Maxime, and anyway Arlette isn't so much a tart with a heart as a someone who hasn't the heart to be a tart. But the film is saved from a happy ending as Arlette goes away. It could have been worse. 

          ADDENDUM: I've just learned that there are cameos by Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Luc            Doullet in this film!

Jean-Daniel Pollet's Méditerranée (1963)

 

Jean-Daniel Pollet (1936-2004) made this film in collaboration with Volker Schlöndorff. Pollet made a considerable number of scenes around the Mediterranean to put together this 42-minute film, with the poetic words being written by Philippe Sollers. The music is by Antoine Duhamel, the son of the writer Georges. Godard praised the film in Cahiers du cinéma and was inspired by it make some shots in Le Mépris.

In Substance (128 (2016)), Andrew Ritchey says Méditerranée 'played a crucial role in the development of film theory from the 1960s to the early 1970s'. It was a link between film and the nouveau roman.

Memory, past civilisations, tradition, beauty, pain, water. There are also a number of very unpoetic, gory scenes of bullfighting.

Jean-Daniel Pollet, Cadenet, Vaucluse (84)

Jean-Daniel Pollet (1936–2004) is generally unrecognised today, although he is an important member of the nouvelle vague cinema, making important experimental movies. He can be said to have made two different types of film, of which the first often included the shy, hesitant 'Léon' (played by Claude Melki). Later, he branched into poetic cinema, making use of the works of such literary figures as Philippe Sollers and Jean Thibaudeau. In 1989 a serious traffic accident severely restricted his movement, and he came to see Francis Ponge as his main poetic influence. He was forced to limit his activities to Cadenet, in the shadow of the Luberon.