Richard Linklater on ‘Nouvelle Vague' and Playfully Recreating the Making of ‘Breathless': ‘I Don't Have an Oedipal Complex with the French New Wave'

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25-05-2025

'Nouvelle Vague' is not like any other movie you've seen. It's not a prequel, sequel, or remake of Jean-Luc Godard's debut film 'Breathless' ('À Bout de Souffle'). It's not a documentary about the making of the film, nor is it based on any known IP. You could conjure memories of the fictional 'Day for Night,' from Godard's fellow Cahiers du Cinéma critic and French New Wave member François Truffaut, which takes place on a movie set, or the recent Paramount series 'The Offer,' which chronicles the production of 'The Godfather' from the POV of producer Al Ruddy (Miles Teller). Some have compared Linklater's ensemble of icons from French cinema to Woody Allen's ex-pat literary figures from 'Midnight in Paris.'
The fact that Richard Linklater wanted to recreate the 1959 filming of 'Breathless' on the streets of Paris, in French, in black and white, in the Academy aspect ratio, in the 35mm-filmmaking style of the period, with a cast of unknowns who resemble their characters, makes this film unique. The movie is not profound or myth-making. Rather, it's a light and tasty soufflé (pun intended) that chronicles the radical rule-breaking on Godard's first film, shot at top speed without sound in mainly single takes, as the director barked dialogue from his notebook at the actors, who had no script.
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Some are wondering what the well-reviewed movie's fate will be with the Cannes Competition jury. This is Linklater's second time in the Competition after 'Fast Food Nation,' and he doesn't relish the pressure. Winning a prize would help the film's chances of landing a top distributor, though, which Linklater expects within a few weeks. I sat down with the Austin filmmaker on the rooftop of the J.W. Marriott hotel.
Anne Thompson: At your , you said you hoped young people — the Letterboxd generation — would want to see this film, as they do at your 40-year-old Austin Film Society.
Richard Linklater: They're going to new films, going to what's out. Far as I can tell, we do pretty well there, as far as our grosses for the first-run Indies. Am I deluding myself? Cinema is optimistic.
How hard was it to achieve this light, breezy tone?
That's the goal, especially in this era; you always want to make it look easy. The jazz musician who says, 'Oh, wait, we just improv,' or John Cassavetes, 'oh, that whole movie was an improv.' You don't want to show the sweat behind it. So you want to make it feel easy. Behind it is a lot of work, and you hide all that. That's what this was. It's unbelievable, the meticulous detail and work that goes into recreating something. Oh, geez. Fortunately, we have a lot of documentation, all the photos.
Were you going back to the real Paris locations? It all looked the same to me.
Yes and no. I mean, everything's changed. Everything's a bit of a trick. We're back at some actual locations, but some locations, it's just gone. The Champs-Élysées is now just a big sidewalk in the street. But if you go 180 degrees on the other side of the Arc [de Triomphe], the Boulevard Grand Army, it still looks the same. So we went back there, we just reversed them, put them on another side. So the Arc is back there. It's just a little visual trick, but we're near there. It's all there, but it's not exactly. Each location had its own little challenge.
You weren't imitating Godard, but what were you doing with the 35mm camera?
Richard Linklater: It's just the spirit of the time, what those films look like. You can jump director to director, and there's a commonality of a low-budget look. I studied with my DP [David Chambille]. I've been looking at these films for years with that in mind. But we really sat down and looked. No cranes, no dollies. Really, they don't have the time. It's handheld, but it's not trying to look handheld; it wasn't unmotivated camera moves. It's just the look, the phone, underlit, so the backgrounds blow out a little bit. The windows are overexposed, you get a blowout, which is a no-no in proper cinematography, where you tint the windows and get the balance right. I like the blowout, so we're going to do that. There's not a shot in this movie that wouldn't fit in '59 to '62 or '63, the look of those black-and-white films.
You identified with a young director making his first feature, as you did on 'Slacker'?
Richard Linklater: I was in a similar position. I'm making a film that doesn't work on paper. No one really knows what the fuck I'm doing. I'm trying to describe it, and everyone's going, 'Oh, you've made films, but, do you know what you're doing?' You're being challenged psychically on a few levels by people. But ['Slacker'] was more unprofessional, you're not proven. I got to admire 'À Bout de Souffle' because he did it within the French industry. It's low-budget French, but he's got a producer. American independents, none of us have a boss over our shoulder, those early films that you're putting on your credit cards, yeah? Yeah. The good thing about that is it's absolute freedom. No one's challenging me on my schedule. But other people challenge, your own crew. They're frustrated with you and your little ideas sometimes. So I knew the psychic challenge of making a film if you're doing something different.
You turned to French partners for help.
Richard Linklater: Michele [Halberstadt] Pétin and Laurent Pétin, I went straight to the top: 'Either you're going to love this or hate this.' 'Oh no, we see what you're doing!' They came along for a great ride. On the casting, they had some names: 'No, no, we're going to get unknowns.' They came in, they had a headshot, a little bit of resume, and you meet them, they're perfect.
The chemistry between Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo, as it was in the real film, was extraordinary.
Richard Linklater: I knew this would work when I was in editing going through, and I forget what Belmondo and Seberg really look like. They are these guys to me. I forgot (laughs), I liked hanging out with them so much. It's hard to capture these icons. But we were pre-icon. We're telling everybody, 'This isn't icons. You're just kids, yeah?'
The script came from your friends Holly Gent and Vince Palmer.
Richard Linklater: We've worked together over 30 years. We've been friends for that long. We watch movies together and are cinephile buddies. They were working on this [for 13 years]. We developed it. They deserve all the credit. It was their idea, and their thing. I just got in early. I could see the movie and offer advice. It was a great, flowing process for years.
Financing was tough. Through the Pétins, Chanel saved the day, dressing Zoey Deutch as Jean Seberg.
Richard Linklater: Worked out great. They came in, very generous. When the Chanel period dress is on set, there's four people: 'The most valuable thing is here.' The whole French fashion world, I have a much better feel for now. I went to the Fashion Week in the winter. I was here finishing the movie. Michele dragged me to the Chanel show.
Why put subtitle IDs on the characters?
Richard Linklater: I wanted to give everybody equal status, whether you've heard of them or not. These are the people. They must be somebody. I didn't know all of them. There's very few who could know all of them. You have to be real inside. A lot of them are writers for Cahiers du Cinéma, the people in and around the film scene at that time in the Cahiers office. Some are little secondary characters. To me, they're all on the same plane. I thought: 'What if we just give them each a portrait?' I had never really seen that. Even 'Midnight in Paris' is not about the making of film. That's a fun little fantasy.
You're not pretending to do a documentary of them. It captures the breezy feel of 'Breathless.'
Richard Linklater: I wanted it to. That's exactly the tone and the attempt. Hanging out with the new wave. They've all got their own complexities and their own little things going on. Did this whole thing feel like a seance? They were all back. I was the medium. And they were all back. And they were happy. They were so happy to be together. They all love looking good. They were young. It was all ahead of them. The complexities of long-term relationships did hit them all in some ways. But for this moment, I told the cast, 'If you're not happy here, you're never going to be.'
You lined up Zoey Deutch to play Jean Seberg in 2016 during your baseball movie 'Everybody Wants Some!!'
Richard Linklater: I said, 'If your hair was [short], you could play Jean. I'm going to do this movie someday.' I was so happy to call Zoey [to say], 'I think it's actually happening.' And then it was, 'You better think it could be next year sometime.' And then it got a little closer, and then we were really close. OK, she's working on her French. We're going through everything. 'Don't cut your hair 'til next week.' Because we were always financing, like all indie films.
What took the movie 13 years to get made?
Richard Linklater: I was pretty busy doing other things. And what makes it finally 'go' time? Maybe him passing away, Godard.
Did you ever meet him?
Richard Linklater: No, no one did. I don't know one filmmaker of my generation [who did]. By the 90s, he was pretty much in Switzerland. He wasn't out and about.
Halbertstadt said no French person could have made it.
Richard Linklater: That's true. It's a compliment. It is. Being slightly outside, I'm not conflicted. Around here, they loom so large, you know, I don't have an Oedipal complex with the French New Wave. I'm just a fan. They're not my oppressor. They're not a legacy. They're not a burden on me.
Next up: He's started shooting his film adaptation of the 1981 Stephen Sondheim musical 'Merrily We Roll Along,' a show business story told over the course of 20 years in reverse chronological order. Produced by Blumhouse, the movie stars Paul Mescal, 29, and 30-somethings Beanie Feldstein and Ben Platt as the central trio of close friends. Linklater, who is 64, is shooting his cast, 'Boyhood'-style, every few years. The release date could wind up in the 2040s.
'Nouvelle Vague' premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.
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