Somehow we missed out on this one’s mere existence last year when it premiered at Cannes, but first-time writer/director and Jean-Luc Godard-enthusiast Emmanuel Laurent has made a documentary about the French New Wave filmmaker and his relationship with his Nouvelle Vague contemporary François Truffaut. The film, entitled “Two In The Wave” or “Deux De La Vague” in its native French, is now receiving increasing amounts of distribution deals across the world according to ScreenDaily. Notable confirmed markets will include the UK, Canada, Brazil, and France. There is no word of a US distribution deal yet, unfortunately.
The film, narrated by historian/critic Antoine de Baecque (who also will soon release a biography on Godard), chronicles the relationship between the two New Wave figureheads as well as their falling out. ‘Wave’ covers material spanning all the way back to 1949 when Godard and Truffaut met and features early newsreel and interview footage from the era. In their Cannes review from back in May, Variety describes the film as having a “professional air” that would have benefited from an outside perspective from Godard and Truffaut’s contemporaries. They also describe the depiction of the friendship’s disintegration as “at once frustratingly sketchy and jarringly abrupt.”
Despite the mixed reviews, we look forward to seeing the documentary and hope it picks up a distributor in the US sometime soon, as anything concerning these two filmmakers together will probably hold at least some worthwhile fascination. The duo collaborated most famously on the Nouvelle Vague breakout sensation “Breathless” (trailer below) which is a must see if you’re even remotely interested in cinema at all.
Godard’s entry into the world of HD video filmmaking in “Socialisme,” featuring Patti Smith and her guitarist Lenny Kaye, will release this year and possibly make an appearance at Cannes.
