CINEMA du Look

Delia Crawford

Cinema du Look?

is a French Film movement (1980's-90s)

in which the overall "look" or style of a film takes "precedence"-or is more memorable, over the plot line/ story of a film

Key Players within Movementand Years active

• Jean- Jacques Beiniex (1977-Present)

• Luc Besson (1981-Present)

• Leos Carax (1980-Present)

Common Film Themesof

Cinema du Look• focus on young

marginalized/alienated youth

• doomed love affairs• cynical view of police• films in which young people

prefer peer group affiliation, instead of familial affiliation

• use of scenes in Paris Metro, the use of underground transport to symbolize alternative/underground society

Films in Movement by Notable Players

• Diva (1981), directed by by Jean-Jacques Beinex

trailer In which a opera loving mailman

finds himself entangled in a murder thriller, featuring mob killers, a corrupt policeman, a philosopher and a thief

According to film Critic, the late Roger Ebert,

"The movie is filled with so many small character touches, so many perfectly observed intimacies, so many visual invention...the thriller plot is just a bonus..."

Films in Movement by Notable Players contd.

• The Big Blue (1988) (Le Grand Bleu), directed by Luc Besson

trailer A fictionalized/dramatized

version of a friendship between two 20th century champion divers, Jacques and Enzo.

Note in trailer the scene in which one character is lying in bed and looks to be "drowning" or entrenched in a sea of water. Also, the close ups of water and simply the overall "look."

Films in Movement by Notable PlayersContd.

• Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (The Lovers on the Bridge) (1991), directed by Leos Carax

trailer

A film about a doomed relationship, in which two young "vagrants" cope and survive while living on a bridge in Paris.

In trailer, note the emphasis on the two "lovers" and their "doomed status" (the woman's going blind, the man has lost hope), also the quick shot on the Paris Metro at 0:48. Finally, note images of fireworks and fire, the overall "look."

We the audience know the story, but we're told it is and looks so "magical."

Other Films of the Movement

• Boy Meets Girl (1984), Leos Carax-director, writer

• Subway (1985), Luc Besson-director

• Nikita (1990), Luc Besson-director, writer

Sources

• Cinema du Look-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cin%C3%A9ma_du_look

• Diva (1981) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082269/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeZ-tPYzTKk

• Beiniex, Besson, Carax https://www.imdb.com/

• The Big Blue (1988)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095250/?ref_=nv_sr_1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fbg6-Z-wvgI

• The Lover's on the Bridge

(1991)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Amants_du_Pont-Neuf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4R56VQDkqw