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Godard and Truffaut are considered the pillars and architects of the French New Wave movement in cinema, which began in the 1960s. Godard, however, is more stylistically adventurous and avant-garde than Truffaut, and the films that he shot in the 1960s are some of the greatest examples of pop art and extreme politics ever put to celluloid.

In his early years, some of Godard’s greatest influences were American gangster films and pop art. The plot of movies like Breathless and Band of Outsiders are the straight out of the American gangster genre. Even if you
are unfamiliar with the films that Godard is referencing, he uses visual, pop art cues to guide the viewer; movie posters of Humphrey Bogart, for example, are strewn throughout the streets of Paris in the film Breathless. Godard’s use of jump-cuts, music, long takes, and natural lighting also create a pop art kaleidoscope of image and sound. The second half of Godard’s career was focused on how to put politics and philosophical treatises into the narrative of film. At this point Godard’s films became less like traditional movies, and more akin to political and philosophical essays. The film, Weekend, is the high-point of this stage.