Jean-Luc Godard’s first feature, Breathless (À bout de souffle), helped define French New Wave filmmaking through its on-location style and rule-breaking editing. The film’s success quickly positioned Godard as a leading director of the movement and opened the door for rapid experimentation across genres.
With Une femme est une femme (1961), Godard shifted into color and widescreen while still keeping a playful, self-aware New Wave tone. The film also continued his close creative partnership with Anna Karina, who became central to many of his early-1960s films.
In Vivre sa vie (1962), Godard told the story of Nana (played by Anna Karina) in 12 separate “tableaux,” or chapters. The segmented structure showed his interest in breaking a film into parts the audience can think about—an approach that became even more important as his films grew more openly political.
Godard shot Le petit soldat in 1960, but French censorship delayed its release for roughly two and a half years. The controversy centered on the film’s depiction of the Algerian War and torture, showing how political realities could directly shape what New Wave filmmakers could distribute.
Released in 1963, Les carabiniers used dark comedy to attack fantasies of war and conquest. By treating the war film itself as something to take apart and question, Godard pushed New Wave style toward sharper social critique.
Le Mépris (Contempt) premiered in Paris on December 27, 1963, adapting Alberto Moravia’s novel into a story about marriage, money, and filmmaking. By placing an American producer, a European director, and a screenwriter in conflict, Godard explored artistic compromise inside a more “industry” style production.
Bande à part (released in France on August 5, 1964) blended crime-story elements with a youthful, improvisational feel. Its famous set pieces—like the Louvre run—show how Godard could turn everyday spaces into cinematic experiments while keeping a clear story of friendship, desire, and risk.
In 1965, Alphaville fused science fiction and film noir by filming modern Paris locations as a futuristic city. Godard’s choice to avoid traditional “future” sets emphasized a New Wave idea: style and meaning can come from how reality is filmed, not only from expensive production design.
Pierrot le Fou opened in France on November 5, 1965, mixing pop-art color, romance, and crime into a restless road narrative. The film’s jumpy shifts in tone and form signaled Godard’s move away from relatively conventional plots toward films that argue with themselves as they go.
Released in 1966, Masculin féminin portrayed Paris youth navigating pop music, romance, and political talk, including opposition to the Vietnam War. Its interview-like scenes and fragmentary structure made contemporary life feel immediate, while also showing Godard’s growing interest in direct political language.
In Made in U.S.A. (1966), Godard used a detective-story surface to build an essay-like film full of political references and pop imagery. The movie’s later legal and distribution problems, especially in the United States, highlighted how experimental filmmaking could collide with rights, markets, and institutions.
With La Chinoise (1967), Godard turned to a “political docufiction” style, focusing on young Maoist activists debating revolution and violence. The film’s didactic (teaching-oriented) approach marked a clear step toward the explicitly political phase that would define his late-1960s work.
Released in 1967, Two or Three Things I Know About Her combined a story about everyday life with reflective narration, blurring the line between fiction and commentary. The film made Godard’s “thinking out loud” method more central, treating cinema as a tool for analyzing consumer society and modern urban experience.
Weekend was released in France on December 29, 1967, portraying social breakdown through a bitter, surreal road trip and an infamous traffic-jam sequence. The film is often treated as a closing statement for Godard’s early New Wave period, as he moved after 1967 toward more openly revolutionary, collective political filmmaking.
Jean-Luc Godard's New Wave films, 1959–1967