Nouvelle Vague takes us back to Paris in 1959. As new upcoming directors like François Truffaut and Éric Rohmer are making names for themselves, intellectual film critic Jean-Luc Godard (played by Guillaume Marbeck) aspires to make his own movie. Inspired by the American noir films featuring Humphrey Bogart, Godard envisions a crime noir starring American starlet Jean Seberg (Zooey Deutch) and boxer Jean-Paul Belmondo (Aubry Dullin).
Anyone familiar with the history of cinema knows what happens next: Godard’s film A bout de souffle (Breathless in English) becomes one of the preeminent films of the French New Wave, with reverberations echoing all around the world.
Directed by Richard Linklater, Nouvelle Vague is a love letter to cinema. At first glance, Linklater appears to be a fitting choice for this film. After all, he helped launch a film movement himself—his film Slacker was essential to the American independent film movement of the 1990s, and established mumblecore as a subgenre, with its non-linear structure, stream-of-consciousness flow, and counter-culture dialogue.
Breathless established Godard as a cinematic superstar and the influence of the French New Wave can still be felt in movies today, with Hollywood filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese frequently citing the influence of films from this era. Watching Breathless is watching cinema reinvented and made new. Watching Nouvelle Vague, on the other hand, is watching a fictional behind-the-scenes documentary.
It appears to be an extremely faithful recreation, at least on an aesthetic level, and the team behind Nouvelle Vague all deserve recognition for their work. Anyone familiar with Breathless will be astonished by the perfect recreation of locations, props, and costumes over 60 years later. It is an impressive feat of casting as well, especially the discovery of French actor Aubry Dullin, who bears a remarkable resemblance to Jean-Paul Belmondo from the original film. The film is catnip for cinephiles, with a number of “cameos” of famous artists from that period, including Varda, Rohmer, Rossellini, Melville, Bresson, Truffaut, and more, all played by actors bearing striking likeness to these great artists.
However, though the film will likely delight cinephiles around the world with its many in-jokes and easter eggs, the question remains… why would anyone watch Nouvelle Vague when they could just rewatch Breathless? It is a curious thing, watching a film that feels obsolete and unnecessary by its very nature.
If the marketing material is to be believed, Nouvelle Vague is supposedly “told in the style and spirit in which Godard made ‘Breathless’”, yet this could not be more false. Breathless is defined by its spirit of innovation, the refusal to adhere to convention, its loose spontaneity, and its jazzy style. Meanwhile, Nouvelle Vague is defined by its precise and meticulous recreation, making it feel airless by comparison. It does not have any of the life or texture of the original.
But then, just when it begins to feel like the whole film is a fruitless exercise in masturbatory nostalgia, there is a shot of smoke curling around Godard’s head, as the images from the Breathless dailies are reflected in his dark sunglasses, and the whole thing feels worth it.
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Nouvelle Vague—France, USA. Dialog in French. Directed by Richard Linklater. Running time 1 hour 45 min. First released May 17, 2025 at the Cannes Film Festival. Starring Zooey Deutch, Guillaume Marbeck, Aubry Dullin.
This article is part of Cinema Escapist‘s dedicated coverage of the 2025 Vancouver International Film Festival.