Deux de la Vague / Two in the Wave (2010)

The individual artist never -- or rarely -- works in a vacuum. Looking deeper behind every artist that can be documented, one discovers connections, people, ideas and milieux that shed light on individual artistic development and achievement. 

Emmanuel Laurent's documentary Deux de la Vague / Two in the Wave (2010) focuses on the rise and fall of the friendship and collaboration between two of the most heralded French New Wave / Nouvelle Vague filmmakers, François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. I am enamored of the kinds of connections made in this film.

We see not only the Truffaut-Godard connection and its changes through time, but also catch a real glimpse of the entire history of cinema, which after all has only been around in earnest for about one hundred years -- much like electronically recorded music. With a leap of faith and a little imagination, one can conceive of the entire sweep of it all by "thin slicing" into this microcosm.  

Truffaut (1932-1984) and Godard (b. December 3, 1930 and still making movies at 83) both show an acute awareness of the history and language of cinema, while Godard also maintains a keen interest in -- and probing of -- history (especially everything that merges into the present).  

Between Truffaut and Godard, we see interaction with others of their nature, visionary filmmakers ranging from Fritz Lang and Jean Renoir to Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock, from Jean Cocteau, Ingmar Bergman and Nicholas Ray to Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol. The evident network of creative connections is quite an eye-opener, and very pleasing to consider. In the words of David Bowie, "you are not alone."

Today's Rune: Separation (Reversed).