Copyright Screen Rant
Fresh off of the rave success of Blue Moon, Richard Linklater is already back with a new biopic in the form of Nouvelle Vague, which made a unique form of history. The new film explores the production of the Jean-Luc Godard classic Breathless, which kicked off the French New Wave, following the writer-director's efforts to put together his low-budget feature debut centered on a French criminal who, while being hunted by authorities, woos a young American journalism student. Linklater reunites with Everybody Wants Some!! star Zoey Deutch for Nouvelle Vague's cast as Jean Seberg, alongside debuting actor Aubry Dullin as Jean-Paul Belmondo, Guillaume Marbeck as Godard, Bruno Drefürst as iconic producer Georges de Beauregard and Adrien Rouyard as François Truffaut, among others. Having previously premiered at 2025's Cannes Film Festival, the biopic has garnered rave reviews from critics, currently holding an 89% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Nouvelle Vague marks a few milestones for the various people involved. For Linklater, it marks his first shot entirely in French, black and white and in a 4:3 aspect ratio. For Netflix, not only has it given them a potential new contender in this year's Oscars season, but their acquisition after its Cannes premiere is said to be the second-highest-ever domestic deal the streamer's made for a foreign film, the first of which was their divisive Oscar-winning movie Emilia Pérez. In honor of the movie's Netflix debut, ScreenRant interviewed Richard Linklater, Aubry Dullin, Zoey Deutch, and Guillaume Marbeck to discuss Nouvelle Vague. Reflecting on the movie's French-set and period production, Dullin recalls the moment he found himself fully transported back to the French New Wave was filming Michel Poiccard's death, as he revealed they "were shooting on the actual street" where the Breathless scene was filmed. Deutch, who described much of her experience with the film's production as being "so meta", recalled that said scene was shot "about two blocks" away from where they were at Montparnasse Cemetery. Dullin even shared that there is "a picture of Belmondo playing Poiccard on the street", with the full-circle production giving him the feeling "we're making history" with Nouvelle Vague. Deutch went on to share how, for marketing purposes, she and some of the film's team went back to the street a month prior to the interview for a photo shoot, where they met an elderly woman who "was here when you were filming the scene" recreating the Breathless ending. Expressing her admiration for the experience, Deutch called it a "very sweet" moment that she loved. Nouvelle Vague Is "More Of An Interpretation" Of Seberg & Belmondo's Dynamic ScreenRant: Zoey, I believe you and Richard first talked about this during Everybody Wants Some!!, which is an underrated masterpiece. How did it feel to come full circle so many years later? Zoey Deutch: I felt really lucky and really grateful. I think if it came any later, he might've had to recast me. I was pushing it with my age, which he kind of likes to remind me. Makes me laugh. I couldn't believe it, definitely. I don't know if I ever really thought this would happen. When I was that age, I didn't really think that it would really happen. So, I feel very fortunate. ScreenRant: Aubry, this was your feature film debut, and you're stepping into a cinematic titan's shoes. Were you intimidated at all? What did you most want to respect about Belmondo? Aubry Dullin: I just wanted his family to be happy to see Belmondo on screen, and I don't know if they are. I'm hoping. But I think I just want people who knew Belmondo to go to the movie and say, "That's cool. He's Belmondo." Zoey Deutch: They do. Everyone I talked to was like, "Where did Rick find Aubry? I mean, really?" Everyone's like, "Is he related to Belmondo?" I get that question all the time. They're like, "Is it his son?" That's the number one thing that people say to me. Aubry Dullin: Oh wow, I didn't know that. Zoey Deutch: So humble. ScreenRant: Jean and Jean-Paul's chemistry helped make Breathless so iconic, and we see a little bit of that from the two of you between takes. Can you talk about what you think your characters thought of each other by the end of the film? Zoey Deutch: That was a little bit of an interpretation and an imagining. We know that they had deep adoration, and they really liked each other, but we embellished on that a bit and thought it'd be fun to play with. That was more of an interpretation than an actual fact, but I don't think it's a long shot. Linklater Finds That Nouvelle Vague & Blue Moon Are "In Conversation" With One Another ScreenRant: Guillaume, you are playing a titan of cinema in Godard, but it's before people know who he's going to be. Can you talk about what part of his essence you most wanted to capture? Guillaume Marbeck: I think it joins what Richard just said. It's the moment when you think you have a vision that could make something new and that could excite people, but you are not very sure that [it will be watched]. Maybe you are not sure that the crew around you is going to follow your vision and trust you to be able to make your movie. It was all about this moment for Jean-Luc Godard. I think this is the moment when he has the opportunity to make his first feature film, so it must have been a good moment for him. ScreenRant: Richard, I think it's so interesting that both Nouvelle Vague and Blue Moon are circulating the stratosphere at the same time, given that they're both about very specific moments in the entertainment industry. How did your approach to each film differ? Richard Linklater: It is funny that they're both out at near the same time, but in some way, they're in conversation with each other. One's about the beginning of a career. Nouvelle Vague is the beginning of an incredible artistic career, and Blue Moon's about the end of one. It's about the times leaving an artist behind, but the times never really left Godard. Godard left the times before they left him several times throughout his career. He had a really admirable career to the very end, and he was still doing what he loved, with his own unique cinematic brain and language. I admire that greatly. But artists are volatile, and you don't know how the world's going to treat you, necessarily. ScreenRant: Guillaume, Jean often seems exasperated with Jean-Luc's way of directing, but no one can argue with the results. How did his view of her change over the course of the film, in your interpretation? Guillaume Marbeck: I think he wanted to free her in a way because she has been in a production with a filmmaker who is very straight-laced. He wanted to capture reality, but if you have to capture reality, you can't tell your actor what they're going to do or say. So, I think his vision was like, "Okay, I'm going to tell her that I'm not going to tell her, and we'll see what's going to happen." And I think it made what he expected. It made her be like, "Okay, f--k it. I'm going to do it my way." And this is exactly what he wanted! I think he was looking at somebody who was too controlled and wanted to free her. And in her memory and letters that she wrote at the end of shooting, she said that it felt like a good experience because it made her feel more free and more capable of doing her version of what she wanted to do. Richard Linklater: Yeah, he demands she bring herself to it in a spontaneous way, and that's not how actors are trained. I mean, it's a completely legitimate question to ask, "Is there a script? Who's my character?" So, he frustrates her in that way, but he's really just demanding she be herself. You see him conjuring up this miracle of a movie that probably shouldn't work, but it did because of his methodology and the sheer charisma of Seberg and [Jean-Paul] Belmondo.
