In preparation for our March 18, 2026 screening of Richard Linklater’s loveletter to French Cinema of the 1960s, Nouvelle Vague, I wanted to present background references to the numerous personalities identified by subtitle in the film. Thankfully, the film’s distributor, Netflix, provided the list or characters and basic descriptions which I have borrowed here, reorganizing the list a little, and adding significant films that each person contributed to that ware well worth watching. Many of these films are available for screening on the Kanopy and Criterion Channel streaming platforms.

For a visual deep dive into the influences and motivations of the “auteur” directors of the New Wave movement, I strongly recommend watching some of the interviews created by Andre S. Labarthe for ORTF in the 1960s, in a series titled Cinéastes de notre temps. Here are some choice ones:

Another rich introduction to French Cinema in general is Bertrand Tavernier’s three hour documentary, My Journey Through French Cinema (2016), available on Kanopy. Tavernier reflects on the impacts of The New Wave period on him with Truffaut’s 400 Blows, at 2 hours into the documentary, and relates his time working for Breathless’s producer Georges de Beauregard, at 2h44.

And now to the characters of Nouvelle Vague…

–Peter Zingg

Influences

Pierre Braunberger, producer (1905-1990)
Pierre Braunberger was an influential producer who first worked with Jean Renoir and Luis Buñuel, and eventually with the icons of the French New Wave, including Godard, Truffaut, Resnais, and Rivette.
Notable films: Bullfight (1951), Shoot the Piano Player (1960), Vivre sa vie (1962)

Robert Bresson, director (1901-1999)
Robert Bresson was a pioneer of minimalist filmmaking, whose “less is more” approach was highly influential on the French New Wave.
Notable films: A Man Escaped (1956), Pickpocket (1959), Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)

Jean Cocteau, poet, novelist, painter, playwright, director, set designer, and actor (1889-1963)
A principal influence on the French New Wave and avant-garde culture in general, Renaissance man Jean Cocteau was a poet, playwright, novelist, visual artist, critic, and director of films.
Notable films: The Blood of a Poet (1932), Beauty and the Beast (1946), Orpheus (1950)

Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, critic, actor and director (1920-1989)
Jacques Doniol-Valcroze was a French filmmaker, actor, and influential co-founder of film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma, whose championing of American auteurs like Nicholas Ray and Orson Welles, as well as his critical writings and early films, helped shape the intellectual foundations of the New Wave.
Notable films: L’eau à la bouche (1960), Godard à propos de Brigitte Bardot (1965)

Jean-Pierre Melville, director (1917-1973)
Jean-Pierre Melville was a trailblazing French filmmaker known for his stylish, existential crime dramas ) and love of American noir, who made a memorable cameo in Breathless as the celebrity novelist interviewed by Patricia.
Notable films: Bob le Flambeur (1956), Le Doulos (1962), The Samurai (1967), The Red Circle (1970)

Blanche Montel, actor (1902-1998)
Blanche Montel was a French actor best known for her work in silent and early sound films, and had a long second career as one of the biggest agents in France, steering the careers of generations of actors.
Notable films: The Three Musketeers (1932)

Roberto Rossellini, director (1906-1970)
Roberto Rossellini was a pioneering Italian neorealist filmmaker best known his raw “neorealist” style and rejection of studio conventions profoundly influenced the French New Wave directors.
Notable films: Rome, Open City (1945), Paisan (1946), and Germany, Year Zero (1948), Journey to Italy (1954)

Jean Rouch, director (1917-2004)
Jean Rouch was a pioneering French filmmaker and anthropologist who blended documentary and fiction in films, helping lay the groundwork for cinéma vérité.
Notable films: Me, a Black (1958), Chronicle of a Summer (1961)

The Breathless Crew

Georges de Beauregard, producer (1920-1984)
Georges de Beauregard was a French film producer known for championing groundbreaking directors of the French New Wave, including Godard. He produced Breathless.
Notable films: Breathless (1959), Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962), Contempt (1963), The Nun (1966)

Claude Beausoleil, camera operator (1928-1983)
Actor and cinematographer Claude Beausoleil was the camera operator on Breathless, working with cinematographer Raoul Coutard to execute Godard’s handheld, on‑location shooting style.
Notable films: Shoot the Piano Player (1960), Vivre sa Vie (1962), Happiness (1965)

Jean-Paul Belmondo, actor (1933-2021)
Jean-Paul Belmondo was a charismatic French actor who became a symbol of cool and rebellion in the French New Wave, most famously for his iconic, unpredictable performance as Michel in Breathless, and then as Ferdinand in another Godard film, Pierrot le Fou. Notable films: Leon Morin, Priest (1961), That Man from Rio (1964), The Professional (1981).

Raymond Cauchetier, still photographer (1920-2021)
Raymond Cauchetier was a renowned photographer celebrated for his iconic behind-the-scenes images of the French New Wave, including capturing some indelible production moments from Breathless.
Notable films: Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962), Bay of Angels (1963)

Raoul Coutard, cinematographer (1924-2016)
Raoul Coutard was a French cinematographer whose innovative, handheld camerawork and naturalistic lighting helped define the look and feel of the French New Wave, particularly with his work on Breathless and numerous other films by Godard.
Notable films: Jules et Jim (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965)

Liliane David (Liliane Dreyfus), actor and director (1937-2018)
Liliane David is a French actor and director, best known for her uncredited but memorable role in Breathless as Liliane in 1960.

Cécile Decugis, editor (1930-2017)
Cécile Decugis was a French film editor and key early figure in the New Wave who worked with Godard, Truffaut, and Rohmer. Breathless is distinguished by her innovative use of jump cuts — in which two sequential shots are taken from slightly different positions or times, creating an abrupt “jump.”
Notable films: Shoot the Piano Player (1960), Claire’s Knee (1970), Pauline at the Beach (1983)

Suzon Faye, script supervisor
Suzon Faye, who also worked on several Chabrol films, was the script supervisor for Breathless, responsible for maintaining continuity and helping to coordinate the film’s improvised shooting style.
Notable films: Bluebeard (1963)

Jean-Luc Godard, director (1930-2022)
Jean-Luc Godard was a revolutionary French-Swiss filmmaker and critic, redefining cinema in the 1960s with a style that defied traditional narrative conventions and explored philosophical and sociopolitical themes. He became the central figure of the French New Wave.
Notable films: Contempt (1963), Band of Outsiders (1964), Pierrot le Fou (1965), Goodbye to Language (2014)

Lila Herman, editor and actress
Lila Herman was the assistant editor of Breathless, working alongside lead editor Cécile Decugis.
Notable films: A Woman Is a Woman (1961), The Little Soldier (1963)

François Moreuil, actor and director (1934-2017)
François Moreuil was a French filmmaker and Jean Seberg’s first husband, who directed her in The Seventeenth Heaven and made a brief appearance as a photographer in Breathless.
Notable films: Love Play (1961)

Phuong Maittret, makeup artist
Phuong Maittret was the makeup artist on Jean‑Luc Godard’s Breathless.

Pierre Rissient, assistant director (1936-2018)
Pierre Rissient was an assistant director of Breathless, a director and an influential force behind the scenes at the Cannes Film Festival, where he championed the work of directors like Jane Campion and Quentin Tarantino.
Notable films: Alibis (1977), Five and the Skin (1982)

Jean Seberg, actor (1938-1979)
Jean Seberg was an American actor and icon of French New Wave cinema, best known for her radiant, rebellious performance as Patricia in Breathless, and for the tragic arc of a life marked by fame and political activism.
Notable films: Lilith (1964), A Fine Madness (1966), Paint Your Wagon (1969)

François Truffaut, director (1932-1984)
François Truffaut was a pioneering French filmmaker and critic whose 1959 film The 400 Blows is often credited with launching the French New Wave. A friend (and sometimes rival) of Godard’s, he also originated the story that became Breathless.
Notable films: The 400 Blows (1959), Jules et Jim (1962), Fahrenheit 451 (1966), Stolen Kisses (1968), Day for Night (1973)

Other Creators of the Nouvelle Vague Era

Françoise Arnoul, actor (1931-2024)
Françoise Arnoul was a French actor who was popular in the 1950s and worked with Jean Renoir.
Notable films: French Cancan (1955).

José Bénazéraf, director (1922-2012)
José Bénazéraf was a French filmmaker and producer best known for erotic cinema. He made a quick uncredited cameo in Breathless as the owner of the white car that Belmondo’s character steals.
Notable films: Hell on the Beach (1965), Frustration (1971), The Trip to Perversion (1971)

Claude Chabrol, director (1930-2010)
Critic turned director Claude Chabrol was a foundational figure of the French New Wave. Inspired in part by his love of Alfred Hitchcock, Chabrol was a master of suspense as well as the thriller genre.
Notable films: The Does (1968), The Butcher (1970), Madame Bovary (1991)

Jacques Demy, director (1931-1990)
Jacques Demy was a French filmmaker associated with the French New Wave and its Left Bank subset, known for blending romantic fantasy with realist detail in his vibrant, whimsical (and musical) films. He was married to Agnès Varda.
Notable films: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), Model Shop (1969)

Juliette Gréco, actor (1927-2020)
Singer and actor Juliette Gréco’s bohemian style, artistic independence, and deep ties to Left Bank intellectuals like Jean-Paul Sartre made her an unofficial icon of the French New Wave.
Notable films: Orpheus (1950), The Sun Also Rises (1957), Bonjour, Tristess (1958)

Kassagi, actor (1932-1997)
Kassagi was a magician and street performer who appeared briefly in Bresson’s Pickpocket, while also advising the director on how to authentically portray thieves’ techniques in the film.
Notable films: Pickpocket (1959)

Pierre Kast, writer and director (1920-1984)
Pierre Kast was a French New Wave filmmaker and Cahiers du Cinéma critic.
Notable films: The Golden Age (1960), The Season for Love (1961)

Martin LaSalle, actor (1935-2018)
Martin LaSalle was an amateur actor whose naturalistic debut in Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket embodied the French New Wave, influencing the movement’s focus on authenticity.
Notable films: Pickpocket (1959)

Marilù Parolini, writer and still photographer (1931-2012)
Marilù Parolini was an Italian photographer and screenwriter who became an essential presence in the French New Wave, working as a set photographer for Godard, Truffaut, Rivette (to whom she was married), and Varda, and collaborating on scripts for several of Rivette’s films.
Notable films: Mad Love (1969), The Spider’s Stratagem (1970)

Jacques Rivette, director (1928-2016)
Known for his highly experimental style that involved improvisation and nonlinear storytelling, Cahiers du Cinéma critic and director Jacques Rivette was one of the most enigmatic auteurs of the New Wave movement.
Notable films: Paris Belongs to Us (1961), The Nun (1966), Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974), La Belle Noiseuse (1991)

Alain Resnais, director (1922-2014)
Alain Resnais was a pioneering French filmmaker whose formally innovative, intellectually rigorous films positioned him as a key figure of the French New Wave, though he was more closely associated with the politically left-wing, Left Bank subset of the movement.
Notable films: Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959), Last Year at Marienbad (1961), My American Uncle (1980)

Éric Rohmer, director (1920-2010)
Éric Rohmer was one of the most acclaimed — and enduring — of the French New Wave directors, organizing his film releases in cycles such as Comedies and Proverbs, Tales of Four Seasons, and Six Moral Tales. He was the editor of the influential film journal Cahiers du Cinéma.
Notable films: My Night at Maud’s (1969), Claire’s Knee (1970), Pauline at the Beach (1983)

Jacques Rozier, director (1926-2023)
A lesser-known but respected director in the French New Wave, Jacques Rozier made influential and critically acclaimed films.
Notable films: Adieu Philippine (1962), Near Orouët (1971).

Suzanne Schiffman, screenwriter and director (1929-2001)
A screenwriter, director, and key figure of the French New Wave, Suzanne Schiffman collaborated closely with Truffaut on many films, and also worked with Godard and Jacques Rivette.
Notable films: Day for Night (1973), The Last Metro (1980), Pont du Nord (1981)

Agnès Varda, director (1928-2019)
Born in Belgium, feminist filmmaker Agnès Varda was a preeminent figure in French cinema. Her 1955 film La Pointe Courte is considered an influential forerunner to the New Wave. In 2017, she became the first female director to receive an honorary Academy Award.
Notable films: La Pointe Courte (1955), Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962), Vagabond (1985), Faces Places (2017)

Writers, Critics, and Commentators

André S. Labarthe, writer, director and producer (1931-2018)
André S. Labarthe, who has a brief cameo as a journalist in Breathless, was the co-creator of the important TV series, Cinéastes de notre temps. The series, which combined interviews with directors and extracts from both classic and avant-garde film, ran regularly from 1964 until 1972. Labarthe continued to contribute to the series until 2018. Some episodes published on YouTube are listed above.

Claude Mauriac, writer (1914-1996)
Claude Mauriac was a French novelist, essayist, and journalist who supported the French New Wave through his influential literary and film criticism.

Michel Mourlet, writer (b. 1935)
Michel Mourlet, a French film critic and theorist known for championing American cinema in Cahiers du Cinéma, appears briefly in Breathless in the audience at a movie theater.

Georges Sadoul, writer (1904-1967)
Georges Sadoul was a pioneering French film historian and critic who wrote the six-volume Histoire générale du cinéma, published in 1946, which helped legitimize cinema as an art form and influenced the French New Wave generation.