1964’s Band of Outsiders (Bande à Part), a mischievous and flirtatious turn for Godard, is the story of a trio of hopeless crooks planning a heist. From there Carne became recognized as one of the most potent directors of his time and released an impressive string of films. Weekend, released in 1967, features the often bizarre occurrences that plague a married couple in what they thought would be a peaceful weekend to the countryside. In addition, Maïmouna Doucouré was granted the 2019 Academy Gold Fellowship for Women by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as part of a partnership established between France and the AMPAS some years ago. Melies’ body of work was enormous, with over 500 films, most of which were quite short. In addition to being an accomplished screenwriter and director, Godard was also a highly respected critic of film. The early years of his career were mostly spent making documentaries of far off places in Africa and the Middle East. Truffaut’s canon features a wide range of cinematic endeavors including a film adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, Truffaut’s only English language film. You can read UniFrance’s statement below: UniFrance, the association whose mission is to promote French cinema around the world, wishes to express on behalf of all of its members its full support for Maïmouna Doucouré, director of the film Cuties, as well as her producer Zangro and the distribution team at Bac Films. This film appeals to our sense of discernment, be that on an individual or a collective level, and calls on us to assume our responsibilities. La belle Noiseuse is an erotic thriller that tells the story of a French painter and his wife who welcome his young apprentice and his girlfriend to their country home. Lindsay Parnell explores how this group of young directors reshaped cinema. Claire’s Knee followed in 1970, a story of seduction, sex, love and one man’s passionate urge to touch the knee of a young woman. 10 legendary French films you need to see to understand French people. The series was a very important landmark in French cinema and became an international sensation, being the first film of its kind. Cuties offers a subtle and sophisticated denunciation of the hyper-sexualization of a young generation who translate and reproduce the images that inundate them in their daily lives, particularly via social media. His debut, 1961’s mystery Paris Belongs to Us (Paris nous Appartient), was initially dismissed, although it is now considered a critical success in its depiction of a group of strangers who convene under peculiar circumstances at a party in Paris. Rohmer is also responsible for two series of films, Six Moral Tales and Comedy and Proverbs, all of which have become modern classics of French cinema. This is a battle to defend freedom and diversity. Born and raised in Paris, I have been teaching today's French to adults for 23+ years in the US and France. From the pioneers of the silver screen to today's new realism, French directors have shaped film-making around the world Cinema leaders … Truffaut's The 400 Blows. The seven hour long masterpiece Les Vampires was Feuillade’s next triumph. Perhaps the French New Wave’s most notable international figure is Jean-Luc Godard, a visionary of film both in France and abroad. As the decades passed, unlike most of the other New Wave filmmakers, Chabrol’s career continued strong. Many people attribute much of his success to Carne’s artistic partnership with the surrealist poet Jacques Prevert who penned almost all of Carne’s notable films. George Melies was one of the most important and innovative of any filmmaker in this time period. The feature film introduced Godard as a truly innovative force within film. Considered by many to be the greatest French film of all time, this masterpiece unfortunately marked the end of Carne’s successful career as his next film, Gates of the Night, was one of the biggest box office disasters in French history. He was also greatly influenced by Hollywood film, specifically the work of Alfred Hitchcock, whom he revered. Celine et Julie go boating (BFI/Films du Losing). During this time he also forayed into narrative filmmaking, directing a short written and starring Jacques Tati. A founding member of the New Wave, Claude Chabrol may not have been as experimental or revolutionary as some of his peers, but his expert craft and mature storytelling more than make up for this. Most of his enduring works are adventure or science fiction based, including the famed A Trip to the Moon. The Beautiful Troublemaker (La Belle Noiseuse). Admired for his inventive experimentation with both technical and thematic aspects of film (a passionate rejection of ‘traditional’ French cinema’s stories of the aristocracy), Godard’s film career started with his involvement with Cahiers du Cinéma as one of the publication’s first and most celebrated contributing writers. Some of the trademark tricks and effects that Melies frequently used include time lapses, film splicing as well as hand coloring slides to get a more fantastical look to his films. Often noted as the group’s most abundantly productive member (directing, writing or producing at least one film, if not multiples, each year of his 50-year career), Chabrol’s formal directorial debut 1958’s The Handsome Serge (Le Beau Serge— the story of an unexpected homecoming and two friends who struggle to accept the harsh emotional circumstances of their adult lives) introduced its director as not only a devout disciple of Alfred Hitchcock, but an innovative filmmaker whose true craftsmanship is displayed in each and every frame of his films. Microsoft may earn an Affiliate Commission if you purchase something through recommended links in this article. While he had some misses, like the overly ambitious international film Is Paris Burning?, his solid and consistent career will be remembered as one of the greatest of his generation. Also honored at the Berlinale with a Special Mention from the Generation Kplus jury and selected at the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in New York, Maïmouna Doucouré was named as one of the “10 French Talents to Watch” in 2020, a group of rising talents chosen for UniFrance by four international journalists, announced on September 11, 2020. Most of his famous works are in the form of serials. Godard’s most recent release, 2010’s Film Socialisme, is a cinematic orchestra of sorts, featuring various characters, narrative strands and themes beautifully interwoven in a story interrogating equality and intimacy of the human condition. As the couples intertwine in their creative processes, limits and boundaries are destroyed. A decade later Chabrol released in quick succession three of his most acclaimed thrillers, Les Biches (1968), La Femme infidèle (1969) (The original version of Adrian Lyne’s Unfaithful) and Le Boucher (1970). Rohmer’s films are known for their postmodern illumination of the narrative process. In 1945, Carne made his most triumphant success, Children of Paradise, a sweeping epic depicting the German occupation of France, focusing on the loves of a beautiful courtesan. One of his most successful films was Day for Night (La Nuit Américaine) which won the award for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards in 1974. Their first great film together, after a few lesser attempts, was Port of Shadows, a noir drama about an army deserter starring Jean Gabin. The streamer quickly changed the artwork, which it acknowledged to be a marketing blunder, but not before outrage spread like wildfire online with many conflating the artwork and the film. Show full articles without "Continue Reading" button for {0} hours. His first big movie was The Battle of the Rails, a war film which earned Clement Best Director Award at Cannes. Our country’s directors and actors are somewhat legendary all around the world, and establishing a top 10 of the must-see French movies is nothing like an easy task. Working intimately with close friend and fellow film philosopher Bazin, François Truffaut was a critical presence in Cahiers du Cinéma. The production signalled a revolution in the art of filmmaking; the film’s narrative technique, at once perfectly lucid and completely impenetrable, pushed the boundaries of the medium while diving into more complex, epistemological questions about the nature of fiction, belief and perception.