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French Cinema

Past and present

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Outline

IntroductionPart I. The birth of cinemaPart II. The classicsPart III. The 7th art in the 21th centuryConclusionReferences

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Introduction Until World War I, European filmmakers dominated the world

film market. France was considered the leading film-producing country

U.S. companies soon took over markets overseas, using the same tactics of high-volume production and lower prices that the Europeans had. By the 1920s some three-quarters of films screened around the world came from the United States

France, though no longer dominant, remained a center for theorizing about cinema and producing innovative and experimental works

New artistic movements like surrealism, poetic realism and nouvelle vague (new wave), brought new concepts to filmmaking and revitalized the role of France as a leader in world cinema culture

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Part I. The birth of cinema

In terms of commercial filmmaking, France’s film industry, the world’s strongest before World War I, occupied a struggling role after the war

No other country had a so firm commitment to the medium as an art form or so rich a culture of journals and clubs devoted to criticizing and viewing innovative film work

By 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumière developed a lightweight, hand-held camera that used a claw mechanism to advance the film roll. They named it the Cinématographe

Their first screening for the general public was held in Paris in December 1895; Lumière, innovative filmmakers as well as inventors and manufacturers

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Part II. The classics

Georges Melies (1861-1938), professional magician, first saw the new "moving pictures" in 1895; Melies made over 500 films, but his most famous -- Voyage dans la lune, Le (1902) (Voyage to the Moon); father of special effects in the movies

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a. The directors

Cocteau, Jean (1889-1963), French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, and filmmaker. La belle et la bête (Beauty and the Beast, 1946), Orphée (1950), and Les enfants terribles (1950)

Malle, Louis (1932-1995), French director of influential and often controversial motion pictures Zazie dans le Métro (Zazie, 1960); Le Souffle au Coeur (A Murmur of the Heart, 1971); Au Revoir, les Enfants (Goodbye, Children)

Truffaut, François (1932-1984), French motion-picture director and critic, a leader of the nouvelle vague (new wave); 400 Blows (1959), The Last Metro (1980)

Renoir, Jean (1894-1979), French actor and motion-picture director, one of the master filmmakers of world cinema, son of impressionist painter Pierre Auguste Renoir; Nana (1926), Madame Bovary (1934), Grand Illusion (1937)

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b. The movies

Among the most celebrated movies, Un chien Andalou (1929), L’age d’or (The Golden Age, 1930), L’atalante (1934)

Le jour se lève (Daybreak, 1939), La grande illusion (Grand Illusion, 1937) and La règle du jeu (Rules of the Game, 1939)

After the war, La belle et la bête, Les quatre cents coups (The 400 Blows, 1959), À bout de souffle (1959; Breathless, 1961)

The most popular French movies in France French directors French actors

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Part III. The 7th art in the 21th century

In Paris, in 1895, Louis Lumière screens his first film La sortie des Usines: the birth of cinema. The first films are silent, in black and white, short and filmed hurriedly

The French hegemony is complete as 70% of the films exported in the world come from the production companies Pathé, Gaumont and Éclair. The spoken cinema comes to France in 1929

After World War II, the French public turns to Hollywood The New Wave (la Nouvelle Vague) takes a break. This movement

of young French directors enforces a new style in film-making: small budget, shooting on location and a team of more natural actors

Nowadays, The French production is among the most dynamic productions of Europe with about a hundred films being produced every year (4000 cinema halls in France )

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a. French studios

From the time it was set up in 1895, Gaumont, the oldest of the motion picture companies, began filming current events

Pathé, leading independent film producer in Europe, Universal Pictures, part of Vivendi Universal. Studio Canal, part of Vivendi Universal. Production of feature

films; co-produces or acquires such European or American feature films as "Irreversible", "All or Nothing", "The Adversary", "The Pianist", "The Others", "Gosford Park", In the Bedroom"...

UGC, production, distribution, 850 screens.

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b. French directors

Jean-Jacques Annaud (1943-) internationally acclaimed filmmaker Quest for Fire (1981), The Name of the Rose (1986), The Bear (1989), The Lover (1992), Seven Years in Tibet (1997)

Luc Besson (1959-), Joan of arc (1999), Leon (1994), Atlantis (1991), Le grand Bleu (1988), the Fifth Element (1997)

Jean-Pierre Jeunet (1953-), Amelie Poulin (2001), Alien (1997), La Cite des enfants perdus (1997), Delicatessen (1991)

Roman Polanski (1933-), Le Pianist (2002), Tess (1979), Chinatown (1974), Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Frantic (1988)

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c. French actors

Depardieu, Gérard (1948- ), French actor, Le dernier métro (The Last Metro, 1980), directed by François Truffaut; Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), Germinal (1993)

Deneuve, Catherine (1943- ), whose mysterious film persona and distinctive beauty have made her an icon of European cinema; Le dernier métro (1980), Indochine (1992)

Reno, Jean (1948- ), Ronin (1998), Leon (1994), Les Visiteurs (1993), Nikita (1990), Le grand Bleu (1988)

Isabelle Adjani (1955-), La Reine Margot (1994), Camille Claudel (1988), Subway (1985), Adele H (1975)

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Conclusion

Contemporary French cinema is rich and varied. It can be strong and violent or gentle and subtle

Every year, in May, during two weeks, the International Film Festival takes place in Cannes, a city in the south of France, chosen for its sunshine and beautiful scenery

This event is considered the most prestigious in the world, not only proposes film screenings, but also numerous cultural and artistic activities

Info about 10 French movies on Internet: La Beaute du Diable, Le grand Bleu, Sept ans au Tibet, Ridicule, Le Nom de la Rose, Indochine, Cyrano de Bergerac, Le Cinquieme Element, Amelie Poulin, Le Pacte des Loups)

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References

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefEdList.aspx?refid=210009564

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefEdList.aspx?refid=210049074

http://www.gaumont.fr/cinematheque_2002/english/index.asp

http://dmoz.org/Arts/Movies/http://www.magicparis.com/champselysee

s/En/FrameCinema.htm