THE STREAMER STRIKES AGAIN
Richard Linklater's Nouvelle Vague Just Got Bought by Netflix—for $4M—and Cinephiles Are Screaming
Netflix just did what Netflix does—scooped up a Cannes darling with awards buzz, only to (probably) bury it. The streaming giant has nabbed U.S. rights to Richard Linklater's Nouvelle Vague in a $4 million deal, one of the biggest domestic spends ever for a French-language film. Second only to Emilia Pérez. Translation: They're betting on Oscar gold.
But here's the catch—again. The very studio that's helped gut theatrical releases just bought a film about the birth of cinema rebellion. A metatextual remix of Godard's Breathless, cast with a dream team of arthouse avatars—Guillaume Marbeck as Godard, Zoey Deutch as Seberg, newcomer Aubry Dullin as Belmondo—Nouvelle Vague is pure cinephile bait. Which makes its fate in the Netflix algorithm all the more brutal.
THE IRONY IS PALPABLE
A Love Letter to Theatrical Cinema, Doomed to a Digital Graveyard
Let's pause and unpack this: Linklater—a director who's practically allergic to blockbuster fluff—made a love letter to Breathless, the 1960 Godard firebomb that rewrote film grammar. The original Nouvelle Vague was all handheld chaos, jump cuts, and existential cool. Now, Linklater's homage, described as “metatextual,” “playful,” and “achingly sincere,” will debut… in the depths of a streaming interface.
Netflix didn't just buy a movie. It bought an argument.
And Linklater knows the drill. His last two films (Apollo 10 ½, Hit Man) also landed on Netflix—and both vanished without a whisper. Buried. Not even a trending tab obituary. Expect the same two-week “awards-qualifying” release before it disappears into content purgatory.
As one Cannes-goer quipped: “It's like buying a first-edition of À Bout de Souffle—then turning it into a TikTok.”
THE HISTORY REPEATS
Hollywood Keeps Eating Its Film Children
Remember Alfonso Cuarón's Roma? Or Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story? Netflix bought their prestige—then buried their reach. Even The Irishman, Scorsese's $160M gangster elegy, felt like it got more attention for its de-aging tech than its soul.
Now add Nouvelle Vague to that increasingly ironic canon: Great Directors Trapped in the Netflix Cage.
But the industry isn't stupid. Netflix scored big with Emilia Pérez—13 Oscar noms, 2 wins. And now it's stacking its awards-season deck with Ballad of a Small Player, Frankenstein, Jay Kelly, and Linklater's French fever dream.
A CINEMA FUNERAL IN REAL TIME
You'll Either Love This or Throw Your Criterion Collection Out the Window
Here's the uncomfortable truth: The company least invested in the theatrical experience now controls some of the most theatrical films being made.
Genius or garbage? An act of curatorial love—or cold IP hoarding?
You decide.
