The French New Wave film movement of the 1960s abandoned traditional narrative techniques and incorporated greater symbolism and abstraction. It also dealt with themes of social alienation, psychopathology, and sexual love. Key characteristics included jump cuts, location shooting, natural lighting, improvised dialogue and plotting, direct sound recording, and long takes. The movement was influenced by French film critics in the 1950s who rejected classical studio filmmaking in favor of techniques like mise-en-scene and viewed the best films as personal artistic expressions of their directors.