TIFF 2025 Review: Nouvelle Vague – “the goal is to celebrate the joy of making movies”

After spending time as a film critic, Jean-Luc Godard decides to make his feature film directorial debut Breathless in the most unconventional of ways.

Feeling left behind by his contemporaries, Jean-Luc Godard (Guillaume Marbeck) decides to follow through with his belief that, ‘The best way to criticize a film is to make one.’  Determined to have the filmmaking process adapt to him rather than the other way around, Godard incorporates an approach that is so in the moment that it comes across as laissez-faire and idiosyncratic to those working around him.  The clash between unconventional with conventional leads to some intriguing scenarios to unfold both in front of and behind the camera.

In many ways, the Before trilogy by Richard Linklater is his homage to the French New Wave, as everything is meant to feel spontaneous. This is something that Jean-Luc Godard literally embraces, which makes the journey even more interesting than what is being shot.  Dialogue reigns supreme as there is rarely a quiet moment, as everyone is ready to admit to their bewilderment in regards to what they are witnessing.  The only thing that seems to matter is that Godard wants to make sure that nothing feels fake, and to accomplish that, it means no advance preparation, leading to comedic and dramatic chaos for the cast and crew of Breathless. This is something that Linklater wisely embraces wholeheartedly and gives the production a charming and mischievous spirit.

The profile shots with the names are helpful to let you know who the different people are but are soon forgotten as the cast is so large.  This is not a major problem as the audience is drawn towards the principal cast, especially the relationship Godard has with his two leading actors (Zoey Deutch as Jean Seberg and Aubry Dullin as Jean-Paul Belmondo), and a special acknowledgment has to go to the roles of the assistant director and the cinematographer as they add to the fun. Shooting in black and white is a clever way of recreating the period, as that is how people remember the French New Wave.  As for in-depth character studies, they are not to be found here, as the goal is to celebrate the joy of making movies, in particular one that became an unlikely classic.

The 50th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 4-14, 2025, and for more information visit tiff.net.    

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada; he can be found at LinkedIn.