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Summary
- Collider's Steve Weintraub talks with Richard Linklater and Guillaume Marbeck for Netflix's Nouvelle Vague.
- Linklater discusses returning to a "beginner's mind" and how he captured the magic of 1959 Paris, France.
- Marbeck talks about bringing his own insecurities and confidence to his portrayal of Jean-Luc Godard and how filming Nouvelle Vague inspired him.
Nouvelle Vague is being called Richard Linklater's "love letter to cinema" for his reverence of the French New Wave films that still inspire him today, and for its recreation of Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, a film that pioneered the movement. Nouvelle Vague celebrates the art of moviemaking, highlighting the passionate and rebellious spirit the first-time director commanded as his cast and crew traipsed across Paris, France, in 1959, changing the face of global cinema.
Starring Zoey Deutch as Jean Seberg, Guillaume Marbeck as a young Godard, and Aubry Dullin as Seberg's co-star Jean-Paul Belmondo, Netflix's Nouvelle Vague is a recreation of the making of Breathless. Godard famously set out to make a film that challenged the norms of cinema at the time, and so they worked on a shoestring budget in a hurried 23 days with no script and a bare-bones crew.
Talking with Collider's Steve Weintraub, Linklater and Guillaume share how capturing Godard's guerrilla-style techniques helped reignite the magic of movies. Linklater discusses what he hopes to convey to viewers with Nouvelle Vague, and how it helped him return to a "beginner's mind" on set. They also discuss how they approached a young Jean-Luc Godard before his iconic status and hanging out in Paris.
It's Time for Another New Wave
"You have to have the courage of your own ideas."
Jean Seberg in the backset of a car looking up dreamily.Image via Netflix
COLLIDER: Richard, the thing that blows me away about your work is that you're able to work in all sorts of genre films. You tell all sorts of stories, and they're all so fucking good. What the hell is your secret?
RICHARD LINKLATER: Every film is this magical world. Every film is a whole new experience. It always feels like something I haven't done that I have to figure out. It could fail. This one had a lot of challenges. It was the first time I ever made a film in black and white. This aspect ratio is not my native language. There were all these things that I felt strangely confident would work because that was the film I saw in my head. So, I was just lucky to have that opportunity to try to make this film that I was very passionate about. So, I don't know. I've been lucky to get to do this over and over. I'm glad you like the film, though.
One of the things about Breathless is that no one working on it had any idea that this film would influence countless generations of filmmakers and so many people around the world. For both of you, after making this, did the making of the film change you at all or inspire you in a new way that gave you a new sort of energy?
LINKLATER: I was trying to share the excitement I have felt all these years toward the nouvelle vague and what these films meant to me, so, trying to convey that on film. One of the nouvelle vague aphorisms was to just make films about stuff you love, make films about stuff you feel close to, and that's what this was. I was hoping to communicate that. But it was, for me, going back in time, not only cinematically, 64 years, but also in my own head, going back to a “beginner's mind,” making my first film. That was really invigorating to feel like I was making my first film again. That was really rewarding. I think that gave me a little boost of some kind.
GUILLAUME MARBECK: Also, what I felt was that it was kind of an essay on what makes something genius. The answer is not so much like, “Oh, there is a specific thing.” It's much more about, "Try something, and you will never know if it's going to be genius or not." But if you want to hope for genius, you have to try it, and you have to make your thing your own thing the way you want it. So, it gave me this emotion of, like, okay, now you are special. Everybody is special, but show us how special you are and what you can show that’s different, and that comes from your heart.
LINKLATER: You have to have the courage of your own ideas. What we show in this movie is Godard thinking that if you want to do something different, he has to do it differently. It's kind of driving other people crazy a little bit, but he's on his own unique path in his methods.
Image Via Wild Bunch
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Posts By Adam Grinwald Sep 16, 2022Guillaume Marbeck Brought "Confidence and Swagger" to Godard
At least, on the outside, he did.
Jean-Luc Godard sitting on a bench and smoking a cigarette in sunglasses.Image via Netflix
Guillaume, I definitely want to ask you about playing Jean-Luc. He is so confident, yet he is also so concerned that he's missed the boat, that the new wave has gone by. It's like this push and pull in his mind, if you will. Can you talk about that aspect of his personality and just inhabiting him?
MARBECK: When I did the first audition, when I met Richard, during the takes, I would go with all my confidence I had, or the fake confidence I had, for the character. But in between takes, I would just shut up, because if I said a word, I would maybe give away my insecurities and what I felt, like not being in the right place. It was my first movie, and I was just an extra before. So I think during the movie, also, I tried to integrate this into Godard’s character. When he is not speaking, and while other people around are saying, like, “What are we waiting for?” maybe he's just in his head, trying to understand, “Am I sure about this idea or not?” but trying not to show them because he wanted to make sure that people would have confidence in him making his first film. Maybe he didn't feel like he could make it.
LINKLATER: We had to have that on set. Guillaume had to direct the movie within the movie, and he took to that like a duck to water. He had this kind of aura about him and this confidence. I recognize it as the unearned confidence of the first-time filmmaker, the unearned swagger and confidence. He had that. That's what made him Godard. It wasn't enough, just a resemblance. It was really the approach he just described which really made the character.
Hanging Out in 1959 Paris, France
Linklater does what he does best on Nouvelle Vague.
Richard, you have made a number of incredible “hangout” movies, and I think one of the reasons this movie works so well for me is that it's a hangout movie in 1959, Paris, with these cool people who love movies and want to change everything. Can you talk about that aspect of this movie?
LINKLATER: I think that's what I told everyone. This movie is just us dropping a camera down in 1959 and hanging out amongst the nouvelle vague, and particularly Jean-Luc making his first film, just to get the rhythms and how that must have felt. It wasn't high stakes, even though making your first film is pretty exhilarating. It ended up a very influential film at the time, but I'm telling everyone, “You're not an icon. You're not an icon. We're just young people." I tried to lower the stakes. I hate these period films where they seem important and no one has a sense of humor or life. These are just a group of cinephiles at a really special time in history, just doing what they love, expressing who they are. It was just magical to put ourselves back in that time.
Nouvelle Vague is now available to stream on Netflix.
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Nouvelle Vague
Like Follow Followed Comedy Drama History Release Date October 31, 2025 Runtime 105 Minutes Director Richard Linklater Writers Holly Gent, Laetitia Masson, Michèle Pétin, Vincent Palmo Jr. Producers Laurent PétinCast
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Guillaume Marbeck
Jean-Luc Godard
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Zoey Deutch
Jean Seberg
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Nouvelle Vague
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