How did the French New Wave challenge traditional film storytelling and genre conventions?

The French New Wave, or nouvelle vague, revolutionized cinema by rejecting the rigid, literary "tradition of quality" that dominated French film in the post-World War II era. By embracing the auteur theory, these directors asserted that the filmmaker—not the screenwriter—was the primary creative force, using the camera as a "pen" (caméra-stylo) to craft personal, audiovisual expressions.12

To challenge traditional storytelling and genre conventions, the movement employed several radical techniques:

• Deconstruction of Narrative: Directors abandoned classic Hollywood continuity and invisible editing in favor of elliptical editing, location shooting, and the use of handheld cameras.1
• Reflexive Cinema: Films often functioned as "meta-cinema," with techniques that provided continuous commentary on the filmmaking process itself.1
• Technical Innovation: Iconic works like Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless utilized "jump cuts" to create a disconnected, jerky effect that broke the illusion of seamless reality.31
• Genre Subversion: While some directors paid homage to Hollywood genres, others parodied them or shifted toward essayistic, ideological, or structurally random narratives to explore social and political themes.1

Ultimately, the movement transformed film into a medium capable of expressing complex internal and external states, permanently altering the language of global cinema.1