Introduction to French Cinema: 100 years in the making

By M. Ben Hawkins East Carter High School 2007-2008

William Kennedy Laurie Dickson was the first to invent a celluloid strip (film) with the capability of capturing a series of images. Thomas Edison was the first to invent the first practical moving picture camera, called the Kinetograph. Edison introduced the Kinetograph along with his invention the Kinetoscope at the Worlds Fair in 1893. The Kinetoscope was the first device that allowed the public to view a motion picture captured by Edisons Kinetograph. The problem was that it allowed only one person at a time to view a motion picture. The Kinetoscopes popularity spread however and soon Kinetoscope parlors starting popping up all over.

A brief history of cinema

The Kinetoscope by Thomas Edison

Les Frres Lumire

In 1895, two brothers in Lyon, France, Louis and Auguste, invented a device that improved upon Edisons Kinetograph and that contained the first moving picture film projector, allowing a larger audience to view a motion picture at the same time and in the same room. They called their device Le Cinmatographe. The first private viewing before scientists was held at the Lumires factory in Lyon, France on March 22, 1895.

Les Frres Lumire

By the end of 1895, the first public viewing was held in the underground basement of a Parisien caf. Soon, more and more public viewings were held and so Auguste and Louis realized that they would need to make many more courts mtrages or short films.

Les Frres Lumire

The Lumire brothers produced and shot many short films that ranged in subject matter from actualits (newsreels), reportages (reports), documentaries, and intimate scenes (Le Djeuner de bb). Some of their titles include: La Sortie des ateliers Lumire, Arrive du train en gare de La Ciotat, LIncendie dune maison, Un jardinier arrosant son jardin, Le Djeuner de bb, Le Roi et la Reine dItalie montant en voiture, and Le Couronnement du tsar Nicolas II

Les Frres Lumire

The Lumire brothers were also pioneers in the way that their short films were shot. They would use interesting and odd camera angles that have inspired many filmmakers since. They also were some of the first filmmakers to use les effets spciaux with their camera. Even with all of these new innovations in the area of motion pictures, the Lumire brothers called the cinema a scientific curiosity without a commercial future. And so, the Lumire brothers jumped off the cinema bandwagon and went on to become pioneers in the development of still photography.

History of cinema continued...

Georges Mlis decided to continue the work of the Lumire brothers and by 1914 had produced 400 films. Filmmakers all around the world continued to seek ways to use this new media of entertainment, the cinema, commercially and so the world of the cinema grew and grew. Inventors and producers had tried from the very beginnings of moving pictures to marry the image with synchronous sound, but no practical method was devised until the late 1920s. Thus, for the first thirty years of their history, movies were more or less silent, although accompanied by live musicians and sometimes sound effects, and with dialogue and narration presented in intertitles. Back in France, a new entrepreneur arose to the occasion and saw a way to begin a new business of the cinema in France. His name was Charles Path.

Path
In 1900, Charles along with his brother Emile founded the Socit Path Frres in Vincennes, France in order to enter the motion picture production and distribution business. This new firm expanded rapidly and allowed Charles Path to monopolize the film industry in France and eventually became the largest film company in the world, a position it retained until World War I. Path built film factories, studios, and movie houses all over France. He worked to ensure his rights to the production and distribution of his films. In 1929, Charles Path sold all of his interests in the film industry and retired to Monaco where he died in 1957.

Path, Gaumont, Studio Canal

Also in 1900,at the same time as Path, Lon Gaumont began his own film production company, essentially imitating everything Path did. Today, Path and Gaumont are two major film production companies in France. Studio Canal has become a prominent film company in France today as well.

Les metteurs-en-scnes

Franois Truffaut
One of the most important and famous French directors of all-time is Franois Truffaut. He was born in Paris in 1932 and died in 1984. He was a major film director, producer, and screenwriter in France from the 1950s until the 1980s.

Truffaut
Some of the films that he is most remembered for are: Les quatre cents coups (1959) Jules et Jim (1962) Fahrenheit 451 (1966) Lhistoire dAdele H. (1975) La chambre verte (1978) Le dernier mtro (1980) He also acted in a few films like La chambre verte, and the American film by Steven Speilberg Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Truffaut et Renoir

He was greatly influenced by the work of Alfred Hitchcock in Hollywood and by Jean Renoir, son of French Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Jean Vigo of France. Truffaut became part of a new movement in French cinema known as the Nouvelle Vague or the New Wave. He, along with other French film directors such as Jacques Rivette, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, and Claude Chabrol, espoused the belief that the director was the author of his movies.

Jean Renoir

Truffaut on the cinema...

...American and French films are differentiated by their style. The American cinema is a cinema of plot, the French cinema is a cinema of characterization. - Franois Truffaut

Jean Paul Rappeneau

Another, more recent, famous French film director His work and style of films resembles that of an American director. Some of his most famous films include: Cyrano de Bergerac, The Horseman on the Roof, and Bon Voyage.

Jean Pierre Jeunet

Another, more recent, famous French film director His work and style of films also resembles that of an American director. He likes to use special effects. Some of his most famous films include: The Children of the Lost City, Alien Resurrection, Amlie, and A Very Long Engagement.

Les Acteurs

Gerard Depardieu

Without one of the greatest actors alive today. He is in the Guinness Book of World Records for having starred in the highest number of films in one life-time. Currently his number of films is around 150. Some of his most famous French films that he has starred in are: Le dernier metro, Le retour de Martin Guerre, and Cyrano de Bergerac. He has also starred in a few American films like Green Card, My Father the Hero, 102 Dalmations, and more recently Last Holiday with Queen Latifah.

Jean Reno

Another great French actor is Jean Reno. Some of his most famous French films include Les Visiteurs (Part 1 & II), Tais-toi, and Decalage Horaire. He has acted in several American films including The Professional, French Kiss, Ronin, Mission Impossible, Just Visiting, The DaVinci Code, and The Pink Pather with Steve Martin.

Les Acteurs Encore

Franois Cluzet Daniel Auteuil

Andr Dussolier

Les Actrices

Juliette Binoche

She is without a doubt one of the greatest actresses alive today. Nickname: La binoche She has been in several French films: Les Amants du Pont Neuf, Code Inconnu, Bleu, The Horseman on the Roof, Dcalage Horaire, Cach, and Paris, Je taime. She has starred in several American films such as Wuthering Heights, Chocolat with Johnny Depp, Dan in Real Life with Steve Carell, and The English Patient, for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

Les Actrices Encore

Fanny Ardant

Emmanuelle Bart

Catherine Deneuve

Marion Cotillard

Virginie Ledoyen

Audrey Tautou
She is one of the most popular and well-known French actresses. She starred with Tom Hanks in the American film The DaVinci Code. She will always be most remembered for her performance in the lead role in the French film Amlie, which was a big success here in the US as well.

And the winner is...

Q: What is the highest award an actor or director or any person involved in cinema can win in the United States?

The answer?

And the winner is...

Thats right! Old

Oscar!

Et le gagnant est...

Q: What is the highest award an actor or director or any person involved in cinema can win in France?

Et le gagnant est...

Le Csar!

Fin