Nouvelle Mex

by Len Borruso

In 1959, François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows made an emphatic statement to the world announcing the Nouvelle Vague: the French New Wave. These films established the auteur theory, which had been championed in the film journal Cahiers du Cinéma. They were characterized by a directors’ strong personal point of view and style. Nouvelle Vague films broke with traditional cinema—particularly in editing continuity, improvisational acting and the use of real locations as opposed to studios.

Watching Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, an homage to the great Jean-Luc Godard, transported me back to a film I was involved with many moons ago. After graduating from UCLA I worked on independent films. Like everyone in that sphere, I had run away to join the circus. I befriended a German cinematographer named Tobi, who hired me because I worked on the cheap and was a passable focus puller. The most critical job of the focus puller is to turn the barrel of the lens at the proper moment and shift the gaze of the audience. One day Tobi called me with an offer — was I interested in spending a few weeks in Mexico City?

Tobi was the hired gun for a ragtag outfit called Revolcardero Films, as they were producing a project that would become Drama/Mex. Revolcardero was located on the third floor of an old office building in the Roma neighborhood of the now former Distrito Federal, Mexico City. Once inside, it felt like a spacious low-rent Quonset hut in the sky. The space was populated by a collection of directors, editors, wardrobe supervisors, set designers and other miscellaneous personnel. The only décor to speak of was computers and couches. I would sit and write in my travelogue while they all buzzed around me like bees in a hive. While watching Nouvelle Vague I was immediately transported there during the scene where revered Italian Director, Rossellini, pays a visit to the mothership of the French New Wave, the offices of Cahiers du Cinéma. In an address to the assembled critics and artists, he calls them a “Circle of cinemaniacs. Insurgents all.”

One of the Revolcadero producers had a Cannes Film Festival connection who wanted to see a work in progress cut — but we had not even shot the first frame! This added urgency to the proceedings. Unlike a typical low-budget project, we all knew it was possible for this film to escape our orbit and be widely regarded. So to get things going we borrowed an Aaton A-Minima 16mm French film camera from the horticulture department of a local university. It was typically used to make time-lapse recordings of exotic flora. The A-Minima had its drawbacks: it was temperamental, it ran loud, and it was not typically used as a main camera. But on the plus side, it was free.

The unique aspect of this entire production has lodged itself within my consciousness like the memory of a dream in segments.

I recollect:

Tossing the little camera up to Tobi as he sits atop a car roof in Mexico City, catching the sunsets’ spotlight as it bounces off glass skyscrapers.

Emilio Valdéz admiring his reflection in a bathroom mirror, like Jean-Paul Belmondo, like Bogie.

Juan Pablo Castañeda playing the jilted boyfriend. A goalie on a soggy soccer pitch, wearing absurd and hilariously oversized Hambuger Helper style gloves.

The beautiful Diana Garcia, effortlessly glamorous by the pool before an intense scene inside a mid-century home in Cuernavaca.

Drama/Mex itself is a homage to the French New Wave in general and Godard’s Breathless in particular. And as Novelle Vague depicts Godard, our director, Gerardo, must have been a devotee. They have the same style. No script. No shot list or storyboard. No schedule. We often sat around staring at one another like the characters in Linklater’s film. While on location in Acapulco, the production rented out a disused hotel which we dubbed “The Asylum”. It was the type of place that has balconies that face in towards a courtyard pool. Except that at The Asylum the pool was a giant empty bowl. On this particular day there was an early call time but no shoot. We sat wondering, on the edge of the bowl, all day. We were told that Gerardo was in one of the rooms dreaming up an idea. Finally, at golden hour, he emerged with a stunt for a motorbike. I scooped up the begrudging Aaton and we were off to play an improvised game of follow the leader.

Drama/Mex screened at Cannes later that year.

Len Borruso’s short documentary, EMBODIED, featuring collaborative dance artist Margaret Sunghe Paek, is an Official Selection of the Driftless, Weyauwega International, and Door County Film Festivals.

You can peruse his films at leneb.com