The World as Spectacle: Cinematic Theatricalities

Abstract

This chapter examines theatre's double role as both rival and tutelary figure for New Wave directors. From Alain Resnais's theatrical fictions to Jean-Luc Godard's Brechtian conception of the cinematic medium, not forgetting Jacques Rivette's incorporation of theatre rehearsals and theatrical plots into the filmic fabric, the theatre takes centre stage in the New Wave as cinema's embodied 'other'. The chapter explores the manifold interactions with theatre and theatricality in New Wave film, focusing on intermedial tropes such as mise en abyme and metalepsis, but also interrogating the theatre's capacity - as postulated by Rivette - to reveal cinema to itself. We will see that the collective practices of avant-garde theatre of the 1950s and 60sopen up the concept of the auteur, creating a new space for improvisation and creative collaboration.