French new wave

The directors of the French New Wave were the original film geeks - a collection of celluloid crazed cinephiles with a background in film criticism and a love for American auteurs.

They armed themselves with handheld cameras, rejected conventions, and successfully moved movies out of the studios and on to the streets at the end of the 1950s.

By the mid-1960s, the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut and Claude Chabrol had changed the rules of filmmaking forever.

This Guide reviews and analyses all of the major films in the movement and offers profiles of its stars.