Wholesale A History of French Cinema (1970-1979)

A Parisian café shrouded in cigarette smoke, a group of forty-somethings, between laughter and arguments... In the collective unconscious, Claude Sautet's films are those that best represent French cinema of the 70s. But iconic images abound, depicting a rich and contrasting period. Works that cheerfully seek scandal (Le Souffle au cœur, La Grande Bouffe, Les Valseuses...), others that gravely revisit the dark hours of the past (L’Aveu, R.A.S, Lacombe Lucien, Monsieur Klein...) or vehemently denounce the excesses of the present (Dupont Lajoie, Le Dossier 51, L’Argent des autres...), 70s cinema navigates between the utopia inherited from post-68 and the disillusionment born of the economic crisis. The decade especially sees the emergence of a new generation of filmmakers (Bertrand Blier, Bertrand Tavernier, André Téchiné, Alain Corneau, Jacques Doillon...) and actors and actresses (Gérard Depardieu, Patrick Dewaere, Miou-Miou, Isabelle Adjani...), completely in tune with their time. And then, there is Truffaut, there is Pialat, there is Chabrol and so many others who definitively make these 70s a new golden age of French cinema, between popular cinema and demanding 7th art. In turn a music and film critic, a television writer, and a radio producer, Denis Zorgniotti now teaches Film History at 3IS Nantes. Graduated in film studies and teaching, Ulysse Lledo is a film critic. (Based on an idea by Philippe Pallin)