This book offers the first detailed study of the music and composers of French New Wave cinema, offering a new look at this popular film movement. The author challenges the view that these films were revolutionary because of their reliance on traditional approaches to music yet highlights New Wave directors who adopted contemporary music practices.

Orlene Denice McMahon is an Associate Lecturer in Musicology at Paris-Sorbonne University. She is a musicologist specialising in film and media music with a doctorate from the University of Cambridge.

«For film scholars and students, this volume can add a layer of nuanced sophistication to any reading of New Wave cinema» (Kim Harrison, H-France Review, Vol.15, no.124) «McMahon navigates her way effectively through the complex patterns of collaboration between filmmakers and composers, showing a clear grasp of the technical aspects of the process, and provides a very satisfying overview of an extremely rich period of French cinematic and musical creation.» (Peter Hawkins, French Studies, Vol. 69, no. 3, July 2015).

Contents: Music and Cinema in Postwar Paris: A Cultural History – New Wave, New Music? Film Music Collaborations on the Right Bank – The French New Wave: A Musical Revolution? – Musicalising Moving Photographs: The Early Film Music of Agnès Varda – Musical ‘Madeleines’ in the Early Cinematic Essays of Chris Marker – Alain Resnais ’.