Two in the Wave is the story of a friendship and of a break-up. Jean-Luc Godard was born in 1930; Francois Truffaut two years later. Love of movies brings them together. They write in the same magazines, Cahiers du Cinema and Arts.
When the younger of the two becomes a filmmaker with Les 400 coups (The 400 Blows), which triumphs in Cannes in 1959, he helps his older friend shift to directing, offering him a screenplay which already has a title, A bout de souffle (Breathless). Through the 1960s the two loyally support each other.
History and politics separate them in 1968 and afterwards - when Godard plunges into radical politics but Truffaut continues his career as before. Between the two of them, the actor Jean-Pierre Léaud is torn like a child caught between two separated and warring parents. Their friendship and their break-up embody the story of French cinema.
Exploring the letters, personal archives and films of the two New Wave directors, Two in the Wave takes us back to a prodigious decade that transformed the world of cinema.
Emmanuel Laurent Director
Filmography Selected
Filmmaker and writer, autodidact, Emmanuel Laurent studied cinema in the first rows of the Cinematheque Francaise in Paris and started making films by becoming an editor.
In 1984, he created the independent production company
Films à Trois. He has since directed a number of short and feature-length documentaries.
Two in the Wave is his latest film.
Just before Two in the Wave, he made The Quest for the Unicorn and subsequently Leonardo’s Last Journey (out in 2011) with Sally Blake. He is now working on Mademoiselle V., Journal s’une Insouciante which is based on his first novel, published in 2003.
Previously he has written and directed The Tramp (from Guy de Maupassant), a three-part
musical comedy, Le Cantique des Cantines, and more than twenty feature-length and short
documentaries, including North Chad (with Lionel Cousin), One Million Birds at the Sahara's
Gate, the three part series At Our backdoor 1- The Brenne Country, 2- Saintonge between the Vineyards, 3- Under a Paris Roof; Buffon; By Chance? ; Portrait of Gustave Caillebotte ; The Evolution of Ernst Mayr ; and The Kennewick Man.
A continually fascinating documentary
Philip French, The Observer Full review
★★★★
‘Archive photographs, interviews and film clips make this a fascinating history lesson.’
Derek Malcolm, The Standard
‘The two men’s progress from firebrand critics to era-defining filmmakers is narrated with economy and elegance. Some of the newsreel footage and old movie clips are delectable…’
Sukdev Sandhu, The Daily Telegraph
‘Makes you want to spend all day doing nothing but hop from cinema to cinema’
Dave Calhoun, Time Out
★★★★
‘A treat…a fascinating biography.’
The film itself is playful… informative without ever feeling didactic… entertaining and an almost perfect introduction to the New Wave.’
‘If you've an interest in film, or film-making,…then this film is commended to you.’
Andrew Robertson, Eye for Film
Interview in Sight and Sound
Interview in Static Mass
Read Illuminations Review
Read the Financial Times article by Tobias Grey
“CRITICS’ PICK!
“Wonderful”
“ (The film) gathers newspaper clippings, newsreel footage and movie clips to assemble a present-tense essay that is both time capsule and collage... A powerful reminder of just how exciting that work remains.”
– A.O. Scott, The New York Times. Click here to read full review
“CRITICS’ PICK! This offbeat doc about their complex relationship – as artists, critics, and friends –effectively conveys the energy of that dramatic period in pop-cultural history.”
– Bilge Ebiri, New York magazine
“Wonderful early newsreel and interview footage of the budding young auteurs… Those were heady days, the stuff of future legend and
an inspiration to innumerable aspiring filmmakers for decades to come”
Todd McCarthy, Variety Click here to read full review
“Thrilling…a meditation on two masters and their influence.”
Joe Neumajer, New York Daily News
“Kicks up a good splash. A tangy array of printed documents and archival footage. Smartly selected clips from films by Godard and Truffaut reveal surprising parallels in their work.”
– Richard Brody,
The New Yorker
