by Kimia Pakdaman
Editor-in-Chief
When the Lumiere brothers first showed their short documentaries in Paris in 1895, little did they know that they had would create the center of the world of films. From then on, France has been known for its classic films that not only push the barriers, but also convey deeper, moral issues to the rest of the world.
France’s strong governmental backing of cinema has pushed the filmmaking industry to the forefront. Many historians say that the invention of movies can be attributed to the Lumiere brothers, two French cinematographers who charged admission to a crowd of approximately 33 people for their short films in Paris in 1895.
From 1895 until World War I, France led the world in films, but once the war settled over the century, more pressing issues occupied the French. The war killed over a million men and left the country in shambles. This was approximately the time when the United States caught up with the French in filmmaking, and Hollywood came to be an international center for movies.
But the French certainly did not stay behind. After World War II, a new style known as Auteurism, enveloped French filmmakers. Auteurism, also called the French New Wave, insisted that a director’s ideas should be incorporated into his or her films. This new style brought a new era to criticism and analysis of films, forcing viewers to see the beyond the surface events to the fundamental moral ideals the director was portraying.
Auteurism originated from a group of film enthusiasts who wrote for the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. The most famous directors were Jean Renoir and François Truffaut. Both Renoir and Truffaut’s films are considered some of the best classic French movies.
Renoir’s films feature reoccurring themes of class, race, and peace. One of his most famous films is La Grande Illusion (The Grand Illusion), which recounts a story about World War I prisoners trying to escape, demonstrates Renoir’s personal feelings about equality between races and classes. Throughout the movie, the prisoners, though all from different ranks in the army and different countries, are extremely gracious to each other. There is a friendly air to the entire film even though they are in a harsh prison. Languages are used interchangeably, turning from French to German, and then to English, in less than a minute. One of the prisoners even says at one point, “Borders between countries are unnatural.” Renoir’s strong belief that all people can coexist peacefully is the premise of the whole movie.
France’s rich history of film makes its cinematographers the most celebrated in the world. From the Lumiere brothers to the strong values of the Auteur filmmakers,
(Source: NY Times, SF Gate, About.com)