Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
•
»
9 Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain
(
Amélie
, 2001)
•
»
10 Belleville Rendez-Vous
(
The Triplets of Belleville
, 2003)
1970s to 1990s
After the fireworks of the new wave, French cinema lost its experimental edge.
Lesser-known directors such as Éric Rohmer (b 1920) made beautiful but unevent-
ful films in which the characters endlessly analyse their feelings. Other directors re-
treated into nostalgia, characterised by Jacques Demy's
Les Parapluies de Cher-
bourg
(The Umbrellas of Cherbourg; 1964), a bittersweet love story set in Nor-
mandy.
The trend continued into the 1970s and '80s, as filmmakers switched to costume
dramas and commercial comedies in an attempt to compete with growing competi-
tion from the USA. Claude Berri's sentimental portraits of pre-war Provence in
Jean
de Florette
(1986) and
Manon des Sources
(1986) found big audiences both at
home and abroad, as did Jean-Paul Rappeneau's glossy version of the classic
French fable
Cyrano de Bergerac
(1990); all three films starred France's best-
known (and biggest-nosed) actor, Gérard Dépardieu.
Other directors such as Luc Besson gave a Gallic spin to American genres, be-
ginning with the thrillers
Subway
(1985) and
La Femme Nikita
(1990), followed by
big-budget action in
Taxi
(1994), the hit-man movie in
Léon
(1995), sci-fi in
The
Fifth Element
(1997) and historical epic in
Joan of Arc
(1999).
The 1990s also saw French cinema acquire a grittier edge, epitomised by
Mathieu Kassovitz's hard-hitting
La Haine
(1995), which explored the bleak lives of
French youth in Parisian housing estates.
Meanwhile, the filmmaking duo of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro showcased
their fantastic imagination and unmistakeably French sense of humour in the cult
films
Delicatessen
(1991) and
The City of Lost Children
(1995). Jeunet later en-
joyed massive crossover success with
Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain
(Amélie; 2001), which explored the adventures of a Parisian do-gooder in typically
quirky Gallic style.
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