Cinema Of France

French cinema consists of the film industry and its film productions, whether made within the nation of France or by French film production companies abroad. It is the oldest and largest precursor of national cinemas in Europe; with primary influence also on the creation of national cinemas in Asia.

France continues to have a particularly strong film industry, due in part to protections afforded by the French government. In 2013, France was the second largest exporter of films in the world after the United States. A study in April 2014 showed that French cinema maintains a positive influence around the world, being the most appreciated by global audiences after that of America.

France currently has the most successful film industry in Europe, in terms of number of films produced per annum, with a record-breaking 300 feature-length films produced in 2015. France is also one of the few countries where non-American productions have the biggest share: American films only represented 44.9% of total admissions in 2014. This is largely due to the commercial strength of domestic productions, which accounted for 44.5% of admissions in 2014 (35.5% in 2015; 35.3% in 2016). The French film industry is closer to being entirely self-sufficient than any other country in Europe, recovering around 80–90% of costs from revenues generated in the domestic market alone.

Apart from its strong and innovative film tradition, France has also been a leading destination for filmmakers and actors from around the world; consequently, French cinema is sometimes intertwined with the cinema of foreign nations. Directors from nations such as Poland (Roman Polanski, Krzysztof Kieślowski, and Andrzej Żuławski), Argentina ( Gaspar Noé and Edgardo Cozarinsky), Russia ( Alexandre Alexeieff, Anatole Litvak), Austria (Michael Haneke), and Georgia ( Géla Babluani, Otar Iosseliani) are prominent in the ranks of French cinema. Conversely, French directors have had prolific and influential careers in other countries, such as Luc Besson, Jacques Tourneur, or Francis Veber in the United States.

Paris has the highest density of cinemas in the world, measured by the number of movie theaters per inhabitant, and that in most "downtown Paris" movie theaters, foreign movies which would be secluded to "art houses" cinemas in other places are shown alongside "mainstream" works. Philippe Binant realized, on 2 February 2000, the first digital cinema projection in Europe, with the DLP CINEMA technology developed by Texas Instruments, in Paris.'' Cahiers du cinéma'', n°hors-série, Paris, April 2000, p. 32 (''cf.'' als
''Histoire des communications'', 2011, p. 10.
).''Cf.'' Binant, " Au cœur de la projection numérique ", ''Actions'', 29, Kodak, Paris, 2007, p. 12.
Claude Forest, « De la pellicule aux pixels : l'anomie des exploitants de salles de cinéma », in Laurent Creton, Kira Kitsopanidou (sous la direction de), ''Les salles de cinéma : enjeux, défis et perspectives'', Armand Colin / Recherche, Paris, 2013, p. 116.
Paris also boasts the Cité du cinéma, a major studio north of the city, and Disney Studio, a theme park devoted to the cinema and the third theme park near the city behind Disneyland and Parc Asterix.

A favorite theme has been the French Revolution, with hundreds of titles.

History

Les frères Lumière released the first projection with the Cinematograph, in Paris on 28 December 1895. The French film industry in the late 19th century and early 20th century was the world's most important. Auguste and Louis Lumière invented the cinématographe and their '' L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat'' in Paris in 1895 is considered by many historians as the official birth of cinematography. French films during this period catered to a growing middle class and were mostly shown in cafés and traveling fairs.

The early days of the industry, from 1896 to 1902, saw the dominance of four firms: Pathé Frères, the Gaumont Film Company, the Georges Méliès company, and the Lumières.The Ciné Goes to Town: French Cinema 1896–1914, Richard Abel Méliès invented many of the techniques of cinematic grammar, and among his fantastic, surreal short subjects is the first science fiction film ''A Trip to the Moon'' (''Le Voyage dans la Lune'') in 1902.

In 1902, the Lumières abandoned everything but the production of film stock, leaving Méliès as the weakest player of the remaining three. (He would retire in 1914.) From 1904 to 1911, the Pathé Frères company led the world in film production and distribution.

At Gaumont, pioneer Alice Guy-Blaché (M. Gaumont's former secretary) was made head of production and oversaw about 400 films, from her first, '' La Fée aux Choux'', in 1896, through 1906. She then continued her career in the United States, as did Maurice Tourneur and Léonce Perret after World War I.

In 1907, Gaumont owned and operated the biggest movie studio in the world, and along with the boom in construction of "luxury cinemas" like the Gaumont-Palace and the Pathé-Palace (both 1911), cinema became an economic challenger to theater by 1914.

After World War I

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 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.

During the period between World War I and World War II, Jacques Feyder and Jean Vigo became two of the founders of poetic realism in French cinema. They also dominated French impressionist cinema, along with Abel Gance, Germaine Dulac and Jean Epstein.

In 1931, Marcel Pagnol filmed the first of his great trilogy '' Marius'', ''Fanny'', and ''César''. He followed this with other films including ''The Baker's Wife''. Other notable films of the 1930s included René Clair's ''Under the Roofs of Paris'' (1930), Jean Vigo's '' L'Atalante'' (1934), Jacques Feyder's '' Carnival in Flanders'' (1935), and Julien Duvivier's ''La belle equipe'' (1936). In 1935, 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 era. In 1937, Jean Renoir, the son of painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, directed '' La Grande Illusion'' (''The Grand Illusion''). In 1939, 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, particularly for its innovative camerawork, cinematography and sound editing.

Marcel Carné's ''Les Enfants du Paradis'' (''Children of Paradise'') was filmed during World War II and released in 1945. The three-hour film was extremely difficult to make due to the Nazi 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–1970s

In the magazine '' Cahiers du cinéma'', founded by André Bazin and two other writers in 1951, film critics raised the level of discussion of the cinema, providing a platform for the birth of modern film theory. Several of the ''Cahiers'' critics, including Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and Éric Rohmer, went on to make films themselves, creating what was to become known as the French New Wave. Some of the first films of this new movement were Godard's '' Breathless'' (''À bout de souffle'', 1960), starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Rivette's '' Paris Belongs to Us'' (''Paris nous appartient'', 1958 – distributed in 1961), starring Jean-Claude Brialy and Truffaut's ''The 400 Blows'' (''Les Quatre Cent Coups'', 1959) starring Jean-Pierre Léaud. Later works are '' Contempt'' (1963) by Godard starring Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccoli and '' Stolen Kisses'' starring Léaud and Claude Jade. Because Truffaut followed the hero of his screen debut, Antoine Doinel, for twenty years, the last post-New-Wave-film is '' Love on the Run'' in which his heroes Antoine (Léaud) and Christine (Jade) get divorced.

Many contemporaries of Godard and Truffaut followed suit, or achieved international critical acclaim with styles of their own, such as the minimalist films of Robert Bresson and Jean-Pierre Melville, the Hitchcockian-like thrillers of Henri-Georges Clouzot, and other New Wave films by Agnès Varda and Alain Resnais. The movement, while an inspiration to other national cinemas and unmistakably a direct influence on the future New Hollywood 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 Funès topped the French box office. The war comedy '' La Grande Vadrouille'' (1966), from Gérard Oury with Bourvil and Terry-Thomas, 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 subgenres of the crime film, most notably the modern caper film, starting with 1955's ''Rififi'' by American-born director Jules Dassin 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 Brigitte Bardot, Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau, Simone Signoret, Yves Montand, Jean-Paul Belmondo and still Jean Gabin.

Since the Sixties and the early Seventies they are completed and followed by Michel Piccoli and Philippe Noiret as character actors, Annie Girardot, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claude Jade, Isabelle Huppert, Anny Duperey, Gérard Depardieu, Patrick Dewaere, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Miou-Miou, Brigitte Fossey

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