Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [32]
In the 1920s and 1930s avant-garde directors, such as René Clair, Marcel Carné and the intensely productive Jean Renoir, son of the artist, searched for new forms and subjects.
In the late 1950s a large group of young directors arrived on the scene with a new genre, the so-called nouvelle vague (new wave). This group included Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, Louis Malle and Alain Resnais. This disparate group of directors believed in the primacy of the film maker, giving rise to the term film d’auteur (literally, ‘author’s film’).
Many films followed, among them Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima Mon Amour (Hiroshima My Love) and L’Année Dernière à Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad), and Luis Buñuel’s Belle de Jour. François Truffaut’s Les Quatre Cents Coups (The 400 Blows) was partly based on his own rebellious adolescence. Jean-Luc Godard made such films as À Bout de Souffle (Breathless), Alphaville and Pierrot le Fou, which showed even less concern for sequence and narrative. The new wave continued until the 1970s, by which time it had lost its experimental edge and appeal.
Of the directors of the 1950s and 1960s who were not part of the new wave school, one of the most notable was Jacques Tati, who made many comic films based around the charming, bumbling figure of Monsieur Hulot and his struggles to adapt to the modern age. The best examples are Les Vacances de M Hulot (Mr Hulot’s Holiday) and Mon Oncle (My Uncle).
The most successful directors of the 1980s and 1990s included Jean-Jacques Beineix, who made Diva and Betty Blue, Jean-Luc Besson, who shot Subway and The Big Blue, and Léos Carax (Boy Meets Girl).
Light social comedies La Vie Est un Long Fleuve Tranquille (Life is a Long Quiet River) by Étienne Chatiliez, 8 Femmes, with its all-star cast (including Catherine Deneuve and Isabelle Huppert) by François Ozon and the Marseille comedy Taxi have been among the biggest hits in France in recent years.
Matthieu Kassovitz’s award-winning La Haine (Hate), apparently inspired by American films Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and Do the Right Thing, examined the prejudice and violence among young French-born Algerians. Alain Resnais’ On Connaît la Chanson (Same Old Song), based on the life of the late British TV playwright Dennis Potter, received international acclaim and six Césars in 1997.
Other well-regarded directors active today include Bertrand Blier (Trop Belle pour Toi; Too Beautiful for You), Cédric Klapisch (Un Air de Famille; Family Relations), German-born Dominik Moll (Harry, un Ami qui Vous Veut du Bien; With a Friend like Harry), Agnès Jaoul (Le Gout des Autres; The Taste of Others), Yves Lavandier (Oui, Mais…; Yes, But…), Catherine Breillat (À Ma Sœur; Fat Girl) and Abdellatif Kechiche (La Graine et le Mulet; The Secret of the Grain), who won his second César in 2008.
Among the most popular and/or biggest-grossing French films at home and abroad in recent years have been Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s feel-good Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain (Amélie); Christophe Barratier’s Les Choristes (The Chorus), about a new teacher at a strict boarding school who affects the students’ lives through music; De Battre Mon Cœur s’est Arrêté (The Beat My Heart Skipped) by Jacques Audiard, a film noir about a violent rent collector turned classical pianist confronting his own life and that of his criminal father; and Paris, Je T’aime (Paris, I Love You), a two-hour film made up of 18 short films each set in a different arrondissement. The runaway success story so far this decade has been Olivier Dahan’s La Môme (La Vie en Rose), starring Marion Cotillard as Édith Piaf. Not only did Cotillard pick up a César, Golden Globe and BAFTA for her efforts, she was the first French woman to win an Oscar for best actress since Simone Signoret was so honoured for Room at the Top in