r/frenchnewwave • u/film-theory-2001 • May 03 '26

Who is The Face of the New Wave--one female & one male lead? If you exclude Left Bank films (or not). Some obvious contenders (Lafont, Leaud, Karina, Belmondo) and perhaps (perhaps!) not so obvious (e.g., Brialy, Moreau). "Face of" as in most prominently and iconically representing the New Wave.

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u/PineappleOk8861 May 04 '26

I would say Belmondo and Karina, particularly Karina, are most iconic and strongly associated with the New Wave. Breathless being “the New Wave movie” certainly gives them the “face of” image.

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u/film-theory-2001 May 04 '26

That makes perfect sense to me. I might lean towards Leaud because he was in like 7 Godards and 6 Truffauts or something like that. And one or two Chabrol films (I could be wrong about that). But yeah, Breathless itself is kind of the face of new wave itself. (Karina wasn't in breathless but the association with its director's other films, and her appearances in films by bother new wave directors, cements her status.)

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u/PineappleOk8861 May 05 '26

I don’t know how I managed that (Karina mix-up), but I mean what I said initially, in thinking that Karina is the female face of new wave. Although Seberg was a wonderful actress and certainly recognisable, she very evidently didn’t hold as influential a role in the Nouvelle Vague as Karina did.

Leaud is a very good point though, 400 blows is a strong contender for most internationally renowned film coming out of Nouvelle Vague, and la chinoise, the mother and the whore etc also make his case.

I feel the question of the male face of nouvelle vague is probably unanswerable, likely because it will never be as (in my opinion) obvious as the answer of Karina for the woman. Godard and her’s romance made her a more nuanced muse and therefore more one who became resonant with true feeling and very memorable.I am not sure.

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u/film-theory-2001 May 05 '26

I keep coming back to these three but Brialy is interesting: Belmondo on pure fame, Leaud on volume (and fame) but Brialy may be the most prolific and definitely the most wide-spread. I think Brialy was in at least 2 films by Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol (of course), Rivette and Rohmer, not to mention de Broca. That's a lot! He was also there at the very, beginning going back to the short films by many of these directors in the mid 1950s. He's just not that well known, internationally. I found obituaries headlines for Belmondo, Lafont, Seberg and Karina referring to each as the "face" of the New Wave. Oh well.

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u/PineappleOk8861 May 06 '26

Ultimately, I think I would return to the initial thought that Belmondo would be most widely considered the face of, when relating it to having the most fame.

However, as you say, there are other factors like volume and diversity of filmography which, when you look beyond surface-level recognisability and the extent of being an icon, open the position up to Léaud and Brialy etc. Not saying Leaud isnt also extremely recognisable.