The Japanese New Wave, or Nouvelle Vague (ヌーベルバーグ, Nūberu bāgu, cf. French New Wave), is a movement of Japanese filmmakers and their work from the late 1950s through the early 1970s.

History

David Desser in his Eros plus Massacre places the marginal comment:

"Superficial comparisons between the Japanese New Wave cinema and the French New Wave, typically to imply greater integrity to the latter, have served the cultural cliché that the Japanese are merely great imitators, that they do nothing original. (...) To see the Japanese New Wave as an imitation of the French New Wave (an impossibility since they arose simultaneously) fails to see the Japanese context out of which the movement arose. (...) While the Japanese New Wave did draw benefits from the French New Wave, mainly in the form of a handy journalistic label which could be applied to it (the "nūberu bāgu" from the Japanese pronunciation of the French term), it nevertheless possesses a high degree of integrity and specificity."

New wave music is a musical genre of pop/rock created in the late 1970s to mid-1980s with ties to 1970s punk rock. The wide range of bands categorized under this term has been a source of much confusion and controversy. The new wave sound of the late 1970s moved away from the smooth blues and rock & roll sounds to create music with a twitchy, agitated feel, choppy rhythm guitars and fast tempos. Initially—as with the later post-punk—new wave was broadly analogous to punk rock before branching as a distinctly identified genre, incorporating electronic/experimental music, mod, disco and pop. It subsequently engendered subgenres and fusions, including synthpop, college rock and gothic rock.

New wave differs from other movements with ties to first-wave punk as it displays characteristics common to pop music, rather than the more "arty" post-punk, though it incorporates much of the original punk rock sound and ethos while arguably exhibiting greater complexity in both music and lyrics. Common characteristics of new wave music, aside from its punk influences, include the use of synthesizers and electronic productions, the importance of styling and the arts, as well as a great amount of diversity.

11th International contest of young performers «New wave» which was held from 24 to 29 July 2012 in the concert hall Dzintari in Jūrmala, Latvia.

Participants

Day 1–25 July

Day 2–26 July

Day 3–28 July

Results

Presenters

The contest program

New generation films (2010–present) is a Malayalam film movement developed in the early 2010s, characterized by fresh and unusual themes and new narrative techniques. Films of the new wave differ from conventional themes of the past two decades (1990s and 2000s) and introduced several new trends to the Malayalam industry. While the new generation formats and styles are deeply influenced by global and Indian trends, their thematics are firmly rooted in Malayalee life and mindscapes.

The new generation also helped to revive the Malayalam film industry in the early 2010s. New generation film producers like Listin Stephen who produced Traffic, Sadanandan Rangorath who produced Salt N' Pepper, Sandra Thomas who produced Friday are the producers who believed in this concept and took the initiative to make this movement in the industry.

Characteristics of films

Erosion of the so-called "superstar" system in popular Malayalam films coincided with rise of the new wave where screenplay got rooted-to-reality, closer-to-life and lead characters became ordinary men and women. Influx of new actors, the absence of superstars, rise of metro-centric/urban and middle-class themes and different story-lines were also noted in the wave. While formats and styles of the new directors are deeply influenced by the global and Indian trends, their thematics were firmly rooted in Malayali life and mind-scape. A recurrent trope in these new narratives is accidents, coincidences, casual encounters and chance meetings that set in motion an unexpected chain of events affecting the lives of the characters drifting in the urban flotsam. The frequent use of Malayalam influenced by English is also noted in the films.