A Century of French Cinema Six regions, six films appraised for cultural and historical meaning. Produced by Jean-Luc Godard. Documentary 1995 50 mins Anne-Marie Miéville and Jean-Luc Godard Breathless [À bout de souffle] Jean-Luc Godard’s extraordinary debut feature, an insouciant and iconoclastic crime film that paved the way for the French New Wave. Film noir 1960 90 mins Jean-Luc Godard La Belle et la Bête Jean Cocteau’s ravishingly restored 1946 film is a cinematic classic. “Five stars. [This] magical exploration of the fairytale is a compelling and bizarre masterpiece” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian Fantasy 1946 95 mins Jean Cocteau Celine and Julie Go Boating Jacques Rivette’s biggest commercial hit is an exhilarating combination of theatricality, paranoia and ‘la vie parisienne’, around an entrancing examination of making and watching films. Drama 1974 194 mins Jacques Rivette Chronicle of a Summer The hugely influential and ground-breaking documentary film from filmmaker-anthropologist Jean Rouch and sociologist Edgar Morin. Documentary 1961 90 mins Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin Delicatessen Jeunet and Caro's endlessly inventive and wildly enjoyable post-apocalyptic black comedy, about a sinister butcher and the circus clown who becomes his nemesis. Comedy Fantasy 1990 100 mins Jean-Pierre Jeunet Eden and After Alain Robbe-Grillet’s sensual fantasy follows a group of students who enter a bizarre sado-masochistic realm after taking a mysterious drug. Animation & Artists Moving Image Drama 1969 98 mins Alain Robbe-Grillet Les Enfants Terribles Jean-Pierre Melville’s film of Jean Cocteau's controversial novel about a teenage brother and sister and their intense, closeted relationship. Drama 1949 106 mins Jean-Pierre Melville The Immortal One The debut feature from famed novelist and screenwriter Alain Robbe-Grillet is a daring examination of fantasy and memory set in Turkey. Drama 1962 101 mins Alain Robbe-Grillet Le Mépris Jean-Luc Godard conducts an autopsy of love and the creative process, as a boorish film producer dismantles a seemingly strong marriage. Drama 1963 103 mins Jean-Luc Godard Maitresse Gerard Depardieu plays the young innocent who falls for the mysterious maitresse Ariane (Bulle Ogier), a leather clad dominatrix, in Barbet Schroeder’s controversial film. Drama 1976 113 mins Barbet Schroeder The Man Who Lies Jean-Louis Trintignant is the mysterious stranger who arrives in a French village claiming to be an old comrade of a local resistance hero, in Alain Robbe-Grillet’s piercing fable of war-time myth and memory. Drama 1968 93 mins Alain Robbe-Grillet More The first feature by Barbet Schroeder (Maîtresse, The Valley), More created a sensation when it was released in 1969, quickly becoming a cult classic and famed for its Pink Floyd soundtrack. Drama 1969 116 mins Barbet Schroeder Orphée Magical retelling of the Orpheus myth by poet, playwright, artist and filmmaker Jean Cocteau. Drama 1950 96 mins Jean Cocteau Partie de campagne On a country picnic, a young girl leaves her family for a while and succumbs to an all-too-brief romance in Jean Renoir's sensuous tribute to the countryside. Period drama 1936 39 mins Jean Renoir La Règle du jeu Renoir's depiction of an intransigent society teetering towards disaster was derided upon release and only later acclaimed as one of cinema’s most vital films. Drama 1939 102 mins Jean Renoir Successive Slidings of Pleasure Alain Robbe-Grillet’s serpentine erotic mystery presented as a surreal investigation into a woman with feared sexual powers. Drama 1974 106 mins Alain Robbe-Grillet Trans-Europ-Express This stylish, cult 1966 erotic thriller stars French New Wave icons Jean-Louis Trintigant and Marie-France Pisier. Thriller 1966 95 mins Alain Robbe-Grillet Two in the Wave Jean Luc-Godard and Francois Truffaut: the story of a friendship, a break-up and the birth of a new cinematic movement that would sweep the world. Documentary 2009 92 mins Emmanuel Laurent The Valley (Obscured by Clouds) Different worlds collide when a chic young diplomat's wife meets an intriguing adventurer and his hippy friends in Barbet Schroeder's striking second feature. Drama 1972 105 mins Barbet Schroeder
