Richard Linklater’s latest outing recaptures the youthful energy of Godard’s French New Wave

Interpretation not impression, Richard Linklater counselled his brilliant cast, assembled to tell the story of Breathless, the breakout film of Jean-Luc Godard.

The creator of the Before films, this season the celebrated naturalistic director has two features reaching their audience: Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague, with the latter documenting the making of the French New Wave classic. In 1960, when Breathless was released, Godard’s jump cuts seemed a revolution, as he tracked the blackly comic romance between a girl reporter (played by Jean Seberg) and a man on the run (Jean-Paul Belmondo).

Nouvelle Vague’s star Zoey Deutch, who portrays Seberg, has described the uncanny feeling of watching Linklater conjure his hero Godard (newcomer Guillaume Marbeck), as though he could – through the process of making the film – interact with him in real life, instead of in his imagination.

Anxieties about what the French would make of an American celebration of their film history moment are wide of the mark. As well as serious Cannes critical buzz, Vague followed, with the film acquired for distribution by Netflix.

Jean Seberg’s stripes here aren’t the usual Bretons of a penniless, aspiring Herald Tribune journalist in the original, but carefully crafted by Chanel. Indeed, Deutch loved them so much she wore the costume itself to promote the film on the Croisette in Cannes. That dedicated craftsmanship is a resonant symbol for the contradictions of the whole undertaking. Linklater has talked about the irony of celebrating the freedom and spontaneity of Godard and his crews shooting and improvising any way they wanted, with the full-scale artifice of painstakingly planning and recreating a perfect period piece.

One of the most eccentric scripts to have got beyond a cinephile’s page or daydream, Nouvelle Vague proves a startlingly entertaining look back. As well as Deutch, Linklater’s French cast is remarkable. Belmondo is played by Aubry Dullin, and Marbeck as Godard is another great new discovery. In an ideally nihilistic twist, he had been working as an extra, until he was found by a casting director to play this demi-god of French cinema. Not even Godard himself could write that.

When you flick between Breathless and Nouvelle Vague, the most dedicated fans will struggle to tell the difference in recreated scenes. Let’s hope that seemingly magical sleight of hand isn’t too successful for the actors and creative talent not to be given the acclaim they richly deserve.

Nouvelle Vague is released in UK cinemas on 30 January 2026.