The Cinema of France comprises the art of film A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a story conveyed with moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects. The process of filmmaking has developed into an art form and industry and creative movies made within the nation of France or by French filmmakers abroad.
France is the birthplace of cinema and was responsible for many of its early significant contributions.[1] Several important cinematic movements, including the Nouvelle Vague The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced (in part) by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of classical cinematic form and their spirit, began in the country. It is noted for having a particularly strong film industry, due in part to a certain level of protection afforded it by the French government The government of the French Republic is a semi-presidential system determined by the French Constitution of the fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic". The constitution provides for a separation of powers and proclaims France's "attachment to the Rights of Man and.[1] It is able to stand up well to competition when compared with the cinema industries of other countries. Characteristics of French cinema include slower plotlines, strong character development, and a deviance from happy or conclusive endings.
Apart from its strong indigenous film tradition, France has also been a gathering spot for artists from across Europe and the world. For this reason, French cinema is sometimes intertwined with the cinema of foreign nations. Directors from nations such as Poland (Roman Polanski Roman Raymond Polanski is a Polish-French film director, producer, writer, and actor. Polanski began his career in Poland, and later became a critically-acclaimed director of both art house and commercial films. Polanski's first feature-length film, Knife in the Water (1962), made in Poland, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign, Krzysztof Kieslowski, and Andrzej Żuławski), Argentina The Argentine claims in Antarctica along with the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands (administered by the United Kingdom) shown in light green (Gaspar Noe Gaspar Noé is an Argentinian-born French filmmaker. Three of his films feature the character of a nameless butcher played by Philippe Nahon; Carne, I Stand Alone and (in a cameo) Irréversible. Carne was the recipient of the Critic's Award at the 5th Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in February 1994 and Edgardo Cozarinsky), Russia (Alexandre Alexeieff, Anatole Litvak) and Georgia Georgia (Georgian: საქართველო, IPA: [sɑkʰɑrtʰvɛlɔ] ; English pronunciation: /ˈdʒɔrdʒə/ ( listen)) is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Situated at the juncture of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, (Gela Babluani, Otar Iosseliani) are as prominent in the ranks of French cinema as native Frenchmen. French directors have been important in the development of cinema in other countries, such as Luc Besson Luc Besson also known under his pseudonym David Booth is a French film director, writer and producer. He is the creator of EuropaCorp film company. He has been involved with over 50 films, spanning 26 years, as writer, director, and/or producer, including the Transporter series in the United States.
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Overview
A scene from Louis Lumière The Lumière brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean (5 October 1864, Besançon, France – 6 June 1948, Bandol), were among the earliest filmmakers. (Appropriately, "lumière" translates as "light" in English.)'s La Sortie des usines Lumière (1895)In the late 19th century Categories: 19th century | History of film | Years in film , during the early years of cinema, France made many important followers. Auguste and Louis Lumière The Lumière brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean (5 October 1864, Besançon, France – 6 June 1948, Bandol), were among the earliest filmmakers in history. (Appropriately, "lumière" translates as "light" in English.) invented the cinématographe and their L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat in Paris in 1895 … 18th century . 19th century . 20th century … is considered by many historians as the official birth of cinematography. Alice Guy Blaché made her first film, La Fée aux Choux, in 1896 … 18th century . 19th century . 20th century …. During the next few years, filmmakers all over the world started experimenting with this new medium, and France's Georges Méliès Georges Méliès , full name Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, was a French filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest cinema. He was very innovative in the use of special effects. He accidentally discovered the stop trick, or substitution, in 1896, and was one of the first filmmakers to use multiple was influential. He invented many of the techniques now common in the cinematic language, and made the first science fiction film Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that aren't necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extra-terrestrial life forms, alien worlds, esp, and time travel, often along with futuristic elements such as spacecraft, robots, or other technologies. Science fiction A Trip to the Moon A Trip to the Moon is a 1902 French black and white silent science fiction film. It is based loosely on two popular novels of the time: From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne and The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells (Le Voyage dans la Lune A Trip to the Moon is a 1902 French black and white silent science fiction film. It is based loosely on two popular novels of the time: From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne and The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells) in 1902).
Alice Guy Blaché was head of production at Gaumont Pictures Gaumont Film Company is a French film production company founded in 1895 by the engineer-turned-inventor, Léon Gaumont . It is the oldest running film company in the world. Originally dealing in photographic apparatuses, the company began producing short films in 1897 to promote its make of camera-projector. Léon Gaumont's secretary Alice Guy, where she made about 400 films, from 1897 … 18th century . 19th century . 20th century … until 1906, then continued her career in the United States, as did Maurice Tourneur and Léonce Perret after World War I World War I was a military conflict that lasted from 1914 to 1918 and involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies and the Central Powers. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilized in one of the largest wars in history. More than 15 million people were. During the period between World War I and World War II Albania · Australia · Austria · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Belgium · Brazil · Bulgaria · Burma · Cambodia · Canada · Ceylon (Sri Lanka) · Channel Islands · China · Czechoslovakia · Denmark · Dutch East Indies · Egypt · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Gibraltar · Greece · Greenland · Hong Kong · Hungary · Iceland ·, Jacques Feyder Jacques Feyder was a Belgian screenwriter and film director who worked principally in France, but also in the USA, Britain and Germany. He was a leading director of silent films during the 1920s, and in the 1930s he became associated with the style of poetic realism in French cinema. He adopted French nationality in 1928 became one of the founders of poetic realism in French cinema. He also dominated French Impressionist Cinema French Impressionist Cinema, also referred to as The First Avant-Garde or Narrative Avant-Garde, is a term applied to a loose and debatable group of films and filmmakers in France from 1919-1929, along with Abel Gance Abel Gance was a French film director and producer, writer and actor. He is best known for three major silent films: J'accuse, La Roue, and the monumental Napoléon, Germaine Dulac Germaine Dulac was a French film director and early film theorist. Famously, she directed The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928), based on a scenario by Antonin Artaud. This film has been credited as the first surrealist film, released shortly before Un Chien Andalou (1929) by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí. However, other scholars, including and Jean Epstein.
After World War I, the French film industry suffered because of a lack of capital, and film production decreased as it did in most other European countries. This allowed the United States film industry to enter the European cinema market, because American films could be sold more cheaply than European productions, since the studios already had recouped their costs in the home market. When film studios in Europe began to fail, many European countries reason began to set import barriers. France installed an import quota of 1:7, meaning for every seven foreign films imported to France, one French film was to be produced and shown in French cinemas.[2]
In 1931, Marcel Pagnol filmed the first of his great trilogy, Marius, Fanny, and César. He followed this with other films including the The Baker's Wife. Other notable films of the 1930s included René Clair He was born in Paris and grew up in the Les Halles quarter. He attended the Lycée Montaigne and the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. During World War I, he served as an ambulance driver. After the war, he started a career as a journalist under the pseudonym René Desprès. He also made his debut as an actor and became the assistant of Jacques de Baroncelli's Under the Roofs of Paris (1930), Jacques Feyder's Carnival in Flanders (1935), and Julien Duvivier's La belle equipe (1936). In 1935 … 19th century . 20th century . 21st century …, renowned playwright and actor Sacha Guitry directed his first film and went on to make more than 30 films that were precursors to the New Wave The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of classical cinematic form and their spirit of youthful era. In 1937, Jean Renoir Jean Renoir (15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979), born in the Montmartre district of Paris, France, was a film director, actor and author. He was the second son of Aline Charigot and the French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. He was also the brother of Pierre Renoir, a noted French stage and film actor; the uncle of Claude Renoir, a, the son of painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to Watteau", directed what many see as his first masterpiece, La Grande Illusion (The Grand Illusion). In 1939 Movie historians and film buffs often look back on 1939 as "the greatest year in film history". Hollywood was at the height of its Golden Age, and this particular year saw the release of an unusually large number of exceptional movies, many of which have been honored as all-time classics, when multitudes of other films of the era have, Renoir directed La Règle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game). Several critics have cited this film as one of the greatest of all-time.
Marcel Carné's Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise) Les Enfants du Paradis, released as Children of Paradise in North America, is a 1945 film by French director Marcel Carné, made during the Nazi occupation of France. Set among the Parisian theatre scene of the 1820s and 30s, it tells the story of a beautiful courtesan, Garance, and the four men who love her in their own ways: a mime, an actor, a was filmed during World War II and released in 1945. The three-hour film was extremely difficult to make due to the Nazi Nazism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany. It was a unique variety of fascism that involved biological racism and anti-Semitism. Nazism presented itself as politically syncretic, incorporating policies, tactics and philosophies from right- and left-wing ideologies; in practice, Nazism was a far right form of occupation. Set in Paris in 1828, it was voted Best French Film of the Century in a poll of 600 French critics and professionals in the late 1990s.
Post-World War II
1940s_–_1940s Hundreds of full-length films were produced during the decade of the 1940s. The great actor Humphrey Bogart made his most memorable films in this decade. Orson Welles's masterpiece Citizen Kane was also released. The film noir genre was at its height – 1970s In European cinema, the failure of the Prague Spring brought about nostalgic motion pictures reminiscent of the ones that celebrate the 1970s itself. These movies expressed a yearning and as a premonition to the decade and its dreams. The Hungarian director István Szabó made the motion picture Szerelmesfilm , which is a nostalgic portrayal and a
A scene from Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard is a French and Swiss filmmaker and one of the founding members of the Nouvelle Vague, or "French New Wave"'s Nouvelle Vague The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced (in part) by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of classical cinematic form and their spirit film Breathless (1960)In the magazine Cahiers du cinéma founded by André Bazin André Bazin was a renowned and influential French film critic and film theorist, critics and lovers of film would discuss film and why it worked. Modern film theory Film theory explores the essence of the cinema and provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to reality, the other arts, individual viewers, and society at large. This term is not to be confused with general film criticism, which may, however, draw upon ideas from film theory was born there. Additionally, Cahiers critics such as Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard is a French and Swiss filmmaker and one of the founding members of the Nouvelle Vague, or "French New Wave", François Truffaut François Roland Truffaut was an influential filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer or occasional actor working on over twenty-five films, Claude Chabrol, and Eric Rohmer went on to make films themselves, creating what was to become known as the French New Wave The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of classical cinematic form and their spirit of youthful. Some of the first films of this new genre were Godard's Breathless (À bout de souffle, 1960), starring Jean-Paul Belmondo Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, west of Paris, Belmondo did not perform well in school, but developed a passion for boxing and football, and Truffaut's The 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cent Coups, 1959) starring Jean-Pierre Léaud. From 1959 until 1979, Truffaut followed Léaud's character Antoine Doinel, who falls in love with Christine Darbon (Claude Jade from Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was an English filmmaker and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in his native United Kingdom in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. In 1956 he became an American citizen while retaining his British's Topaz) in Stolen Kisses, marries her in Bed & Board and separates from her in the last post-New Wave movie Love on the Run.
Many contemporaries of Godard and Truffaut followed suit, or achieved international critical acclaim with styles of their own, such as the minimalist Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features. As a specific movement in the arts it is identified with developments in post-World War II Western Art, most strongly with American visual arts in the late 1960s and early 1970s films of Robert Bresson Bresson was born at Bromont-Lamothe. Little is known of his early life and the year of his birth, 1901 or 1907 varies depending on the source. He was educated at Lycée Lakanal à Sceaux, Paris, and turned to painting after graduating. Three formative influences in his early life seem to have a mark on his films - Catholicism, art and his and Jean-Pierre Melville, the Hitchcockian-like thrillers of Henri-Georges Clouzot, and other New Wave films by Agnès Varda and Alain Resnais Alain Resnais is a French film director whose early works are often grouped within the New Wave or nouvelle vague film movement. Although he has had a long and fruitful career, Resnais is best known for three early works that deal with themes of memory and trauma: Night and Fog (1955), Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), and Last Year at Marienbad (1961). The movement, while an inspiration to other national cinemas and unmistakably a direct influence on the future New Hollywood New Hollywood or post-classical Hollywood, sometimes referred to as the "American New Wave", refers to the time between roughly the mid-1960s to the early 1980s (Heaven's Gate, One from the Heart) when a new generation of young filmmakers came to prominence in America, influencing the types of films produced, their production and directors, slowly faded by the end of the 1960s.
During this period, French commercial film also made a name for itself. Immensely popular French comedies with Louis de Funes topped the French box office. The war comedy La Grande Vadrouille (1966), from Gérard Oury with Bourvil, was the most successful film in French theaters for more than 30 years. Another example was La Folie des grandeurs with Yves Montand. French cinema also was the birthplace for many sub-genres of the crime film A Crime film, in the most general sense, is a film that involves various aspects crime and the criminal justice system. Stylistically, it can fall under many different genres, most commonly drama film, thriller film, mystery film, action film and film noir. Films focused on the Mafia are a typical example of crime films, most notably the modern caper film, starting with 1955's Rififi by American-born director Jules Dassin Jules Dassin , born Julius Dassin, was an American film director. He was a subject of the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era, and subsequently moved to France where he revived his career and followed by a large number of serious, noirish heist dramas as well as playful caper comedies throughout the sixties, and the "polar," a typical French blend of film noir and detective fiction. In addition, French movie stars began to claim fame abroad as well as at home. Popular actors of the period included Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Jeanne Moreau, Simone Signoret, Yves Montand, Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Brigitte Bardot, and Jean Gabin.
The 1979 film La Cage aux Folles ran for well over a year at the Paris Theatre, an art house cinema in New York City, and was a commercial success at theaters throughout the country, in both urban and rural areas. It won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and for years it remained the most successful foreign film to be released in the United States.[3]
1980s">1980s
Jean-Jacques Beineix's Diva (1981) sparked the beginning of the 1980s 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 Léos Carax.
These films, made with a slick commercial style and emphasizing the alienation of its main characters, was known as "Cinema du look" Cinema du look.
Camille Claudel, directed by newcomer Bruno Nuytten and starring Isabelle Adjani and Gérard Depardieu, was a major commercial success in 1988, earning Adjani, who was also the film's co-producer, a César Award for best actress.
1990s">1990s
Gérard Depardieu was one of the most active French actors of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.Jean-Paul Rappeneau's Cyrano de Bergerac was a major box-office success in 1990, earning several César Awards, including best actor for Gérard Depardieu, as well as an Academy Award nomination for best foreign picture.
Luc Besson made Nikita in 1990, a movie that inspired remakes in both United States and in Hong Kong. In 1994 he made Léon and in 1997 The Fifth Element.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet made Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children (La Cité des enfants perdus), both of which featured a distinctly fantastic style.
In 1992, Claude Sautet co-wrote (with Jacques Fieschi) and directed Un Coeur en Hiver, considered by many to be a masterpiece. Mathieu Kassovitz's 1995 film Hate (La Haine) made Vincent Cassel a star, and in 1997, Juliette Binoche won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The English Patient. That same year, Luc Besson's The Fifth Element became a cult favorite.
The success of Michel Ocelot's Kirikou and the Sorceress in 1998 rejuvenated the production of original feature-length animated films by such filmmakers as Jean-François Laguionie and Sylvain Chomet.
2000s">2000s
Juliette Binoche and Jean Reno at Cannes in 2002In 2001, after a brief stint in Hollywood, Jean-Pierre Jeunet returned to France with Amélie (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain) starring Audrey Tautou and Mathieu Kassovitz. It became the highest-grossing French-language film ever released in the United States. The following year, Brotherhood of the Wolf became the second-highest-grossing French-language film in the United States in the last two decades and went on to gross more than $70 million worldwide.
In 2008, Marion Cotillard won the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her portrayal of legendary French singer Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, the first French-language performance to be so honored. The film won two Oscars and four BAFTAs and became the third-highest-grossing French-language film in the United States in the last two decades. Cotillard was the first female and second person to win both an Academy Award and César Award for the same performance.
At the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Entre les murs (The Class) won the Palme d'Or, the first French victory at the festival in 21 years.
The 2008 rural comedy Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis drew an audience of more than 20 million, the first French film to do so. Its $193 million gross in France puts it just behind Titanic as the most successful film of all time in French theaters.
In the 2000s, several French directors made international productions, often in the action genre. These include Gérard Pirès (Riders, 2002), Pitof (Catwoman), Jean-François Richet (Assault on Precinct 13), Florent Emilio Siri (Hostage), Christophe Gans (Silent Hill), Mathieu Kassovitz (Babylon A.D.), Louis Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk), Alexandre Aja (Mirrors), and Pierre Morel (Taken).
Government protection
As the advent of television threatened the success of cinema, countries were faced with the problem of reviving movie-going. The French cinema market, and more generally the French-speaking market, is smaller than the English-speaking market, one reason being that some major markets such as the United States are fairly reluctant to import foreign movies[citation needed]. As a consequence, French movies have to be amortized on a relatively small market and thus generally have budgets far lower than their American counterparts, ruling out expensive settings and special effects.
The French government has implemented various measures aimed at supporting local film production and movie theaters. The Canal+ TV channel has a broadcast license imposing it to support the production of movies. Some taxes are levied on movies and TV channels for use as subsidies for movie production, some tax breaks are given for investment in movie productions, and the sale of DVDs and videocassettes of movies shown in theaters is prohibited for six months after the showing in theaters, so as to ensure some revenue for movie theaters.
Co-production
The French national and regional governments involve themselves in film production. For example, the award-winning documentary In the Land of the Deaf (Le Pays des sourds) was created by Nicolas Philibert in 1992. The film was co-produced by a multinational partners, which reduced the financial risks inherent in the project; and co-production also ensured enhanced distribution opportunities.[4]
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In Anglophone distribution, the documentary film is presented French Sign Language (FSL) and French, with English subtitles and closed captions.[8]
French film production companies
See also
- List of French films
- List of French actors
- List of French directors
- List of French language films
- French film awards
- Culture of France
- New French Extremity
- World cinema
- History of film
- Cinema of Quebec
References
- ^ a b Alan Riding (February 28, 1995). "The Birthplace Celebrates Film's Big 1-0-0". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/28/movies/the-birthplace-celebrates-film-s-big-1-0-0.html.
- ^ L'Estrange Fawcett: Die Welt des Films. Amalthea-Verlag, Zürich, Leipzig, Wien 1928, p. 149 (German translation of Fawcetts' book of 1928: Film, Facts and Forecasts)
- ^ Foreign Languages Movies
- ^ Cine-Regio: Co-production
- ^ a b "In the Land of the Deaf (1993)," New York Times.
- ^ a b Rhône-Alpes Cinéma: Le pays des sourds.
- ^ a b c d e f g France Diplomatie: In the Land of the Deaf.
- ^ Library Media Project: In the Land of the Deaf.
External links
| This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive and inappropriate external links or by converting links into footnote references. (May 2009) |
- Unifrance.org
- Reviews, trailers, interviews, news, and previews of new and upcoming European films
- Sacramento French Film Festival
- Movie reviews of the most influential 15 French films
- Biographies and autographs of French cinema stars
- Cinéma de France blog with reviews of contemporary French films
- List of all French films available on DVD or Blu-ray in the UK
- VCU and UR French Film Festival--Richmond, VA
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Bonheur looking sunflower shot Alain Delon arrives by helicopter reminiscent though it maybe shouldn t be of the out of place helicopter in Donkey Skin Gayet with Alain Delon Jeanne and Hanna
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In application of article 71 of the March 5, 2009 law regarding audiovisual communication and the new television public service, the French government has adopted a regulation on July 24, 2009 setting Heberge par Overblog.
Q. I feel ridiculous. To be honest, a bit disheartened, disappointed. I've been living in Lyon, France for nearly 4 months now, yet I haven't seen VERY few French films, and even fewer good French films. I want to see the authentic, classic, epic French films that one hears about when discussing the history of cinema. I want to be a sage on this stuff, I feel like I'm wasting my time here. I need direction on which films to see, as well as how to find things in France in this spirit. You would think I could go to the movie theaters and find something, however, all you find there is dubs of American movies and "le Petit Nicolas"... and sorry, but that just doesn't work. I've been to the actual Lumiere Museum, with all the beginning of film and… [cont.]
Asked by Tyler - Thu Dec 10 19:59:17 2009 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments
A. Well, if you are interested in film history, definitely look into the French New Wave. The 1960 film "Breathless" (French: A bout de souffle) by Jean-Luc Godard is a great place to start.
Answered by asylum31 - Thu Dec 10 20:12:19 2009
