In Focus - Discover France: Experience the Best of France - page 736

oir (1894-1979). Hot on its heels came Renoir's seminal Les Règles du Jeu (The
Rules of the Game; 1939), a biting satire of the French upper classes, set in the
years before WWII. Both films established French cinema's reputation for stylish
photography, sharp dialogue and intellectual subject matter.
A decade later, the surrealist artist-writer-philosopher Jean Cocteau made two
back-to-back masterpieces, La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast; 1945) and
Orphée (Orpheus; 1950). But it was the directors of the nouvelle vague (new wave)
who arguably made the greatest contribution to French cinema as an art form. With
small budgets, no complex sets and no big stars, these young French directors
made highly personal films, pioneering the use of fractured narratives,
documentary-style camerawork and new editing techniques.
Key directors of the new wave include Claude Chabrol, Alain Resnais and
François Truffaut, but the quintessential new wave director is Jean-Luc Godard (b
1930), who captured the essence of Parisian cool in À Bout de Souffle (Breathless;
1960) before later branching out into experimental films such as the apocalyptic
black comedy Le Weekend (1969) and many more.
Almost forty years on, Godard continues to push the boundaries; his latest work,
Film Socialisme (2010), is touted as a 'cinematic symphony in three movements',
and is the director's first to be shot in high definition.
French Cinema in 10 Films
• » 1 La Règle du Jeu ( The Rules of the Game, 1939)
• » 2 Les Enfants du Paradis ( Children of Paradise, 1945)
• » 3 Les Vacances de M Hulôt ( Mr Hulôt's Holiday; 1953)
• » 4 Les Quatre Cents Coups ( The 400 Blows, 1959)
• » 5 À Bout de Souffle ( Breathless , 1960)
• » 6 37.2°C du Matin ( Betty Blue , 1986)
• » 7 La Femme Nikita ( Nikita , 1990)
• » 8 Delicatessen (1991)