French Society
-May 1968: Riots/Crisis
-1969-74: Georges Pompidou=president...modernization of France
-1974-81: Valerie Giscard d'Estaing-a man; president...social and political changes
-1981-95: Fran�ois Mitterand-socialist president...economic changes and social refor
French cinema
-impact of video technology, cable distribution
-new partner: television- Canal+ (1984)
-films in 80s: less militant than 70s, return to storytelling
-devaluation of cin�ma d'auteurs
-various aesthetic styles and theories
-5 classifications of French film
5 classifications of French filmmakers
1. New Waves Directors (Truffaut, Rohmer, Chabrol)
2. Experienced Directors (Bertrand Tavernier, Maurice Pialat, G�rard Oury)
3. Big-production Directors (Claude Berri, Jean-Jacques Annaud)
4. French Female Directors (Agnes Varda, Coline Serreau)
5. New D
New Wave Directors
1. Godard: cinema d'auteur-deconstruction of well-known stories: Pr�nom: Carmen (1983), Je vous salue Marie (1983)
2. Truffaut: popular director-dies in 1984
3. Rohmer: Pauline a la plage/ Pauline at the Beach (1983)
4. Chabrol: films-social critics-bourg
Experienced Directors
-directors who became well-known in the 1970s, important in the 1980s
-Maurice Pialat
-Bertrand Tavernier
-G�rard Oury
Maurice Pialat
-(1925-2003)
-an "Experienced Director"
-directed only 10 films
-style between naturalism and realism/ not sentimentalism
-over 40 y.o. when directed first film
-Naked Childhood (L'Enfance Nue) 1968-first film-about foster care, Truffaut collar.s on this
Bertrand Tavernier
-(1941-)
-an "Experienced Director"
-started his career working with Jean-Pierre Melville
-first film: L'horloger de Saint Paul/The Clockmaker (1974)-Lyon
-Films: present social commentaires/critical pictures of French society
-Une Semaine de Vacances/ A
G�rard Oury
-(1919-2006)
-an "Experienced Director"
-after WWII, started career as an actory
-known for his popular films (comedy)=commercial filmmaker
-starts directing 1959
-La grande vadrouille (1966)
-The Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (1973)
-Le coup de parapluie/ Th
Big Production Directors
-Inspired by Hollywood-film commercialization
-Claude Berri: revisits Marcel Pagnols' work..."Jean de Florette" (1986), "Manon des sources" (1986)-making way for "heritage cinema" in the 1990s
-Jean-Jacques Annaud:
"The Name of the Rose" (1986)
Feminist Female Directors
-Agnes Varda
-Coline Serreau
-will be many more in the 90s
Agnes Varda
-Feminist Female Director
-born in 1928 in Brussels
-one of the first females to be linked alongside New Wave major figures
-married Jacques Demy
-began directing in 1950s
-Mostly worked on documentaries and shorts
-films focused on documentary realism, f
Coline Serreau
-Feminist Female Director
-born in 1947 in Paris
-daughte of a stage director and writer
-pursued literary studies while attending music school, circus school
-attended la Comedies-Fran�aise
-1970- first time on stage
-Three Men and A Cradle (3 Homes et u
Three Men and A Cradle
-Coline Serreau directed
-released in 1985
-surprising hit of the 1980s (12 million spectators)
-US remake: Three Men and a Baby (Leonard Nimoy)
New Directors
-Cin�ma du look
1. Jean-Jacques Beineix (1946-)...Diva (1981), Betty Blue (1986)
2. Leos Carax (1960-)...true to choosing visual style over narrative, "Mauvais sang" (Bad Blood, 1986)
3. Luc Besson: Le dernier combat (1983), subway (1985), the big blue (1
Cin�ma du look
-"New Directors"
-New way of look at at contemporary French society in the 80s
-refers to films that had an appealing visual style...focus on style at the expense of the narrative
-focus on young estranged characters (the youth of Fran�ois Mitterand's Fra