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2 Notable contemporary French cinema personalities 3 See also |
In the late 19th century, during the early years of cinema, France produced several important pioneers. Auguste and Louis Lumière invented the cinématographe and their screening of L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de la Ciotat in Paris in 1895 is marked by many historians as the official birth of cinema. During the next few years, filmmakers all over the world started experimenting with this new medium, and France's Georges Méliès was influential. He invented many of the techniques now common in the cinematic language, and made the first ever science fiction film A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune, 1902).
Other early individuals and organizations of this period included Gaumont Pictures and Pathé Frères.
In the critical magazine Cahiers du cinéma founded by André Bazin, critics and lovers of film would discuss film and why it worked. Modern film theory was born there. Additionally, theoreticians (or auteurs as they called themselves) like Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, etc. went on to make films themselves, creating what was to become known as the French New Wave. Some of the first movies of this new genre was Truffaut's The 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cent Coups, 1959) starring Jean-Pierre Léaud and Godard's Breathless (À bout de souffle, 1960), starring Jean-Paul Belmondo.
As the advent of television threatened the life of cinema itself, countries were faced with the problem of reviving cinema-going. In the United States, this was solved by new technologies such as Cinemascope, in many countries in Europe (including France), government subsidies were used instead. This has been a hallmark of French cinema ever since.
When Jean-Jacques Beineix made Diva (1981) it sparked the beginning of the 80s wave of French cinema. Movies which followed in its wake included Betty Blue (37°2 le matin, 1986) by Beineix, The Big Blue (Le Grand bleu, 1988) by Luc Besson and The Lovers on the Bridge (Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, 1991) by Leos Carax.
In 1991, Jean-Pierre Jeunet made Delicatessen. In 1995 The City of Lost Children (La Cité des enfants perdus, 1995) came out. Both films featured a distinctive style.
In the mid-1990s, Krzysztof Kieslowski released his Three colors trilogy, Blue, White and Red.
Mathieu Kassovitz's film Hate (La Haine, 1995) made Vincent Cassel into a star.
In 2001 after a brief stunt in Hollywood with the fourth Alien film (Alien: Resurrection), Jeunet returned to France with Amélie (Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain) starring Audrey Tautou and Kassovitz.History
Late 19th century to early 20th century
Post-World War II: 1940s-1960s
Personalities from this period
1980s
1990s