Cinema du look

Cinéma du look was a French film movement of the 1980s. It referred to films that had a slick visual style ^[1] and a focus on young, alienated characters that were said to represent the marginalised youth of François Mitterrand's France.^[2] The three main directors of the Cinéma du look were Jean-Jacques Beineix, Luc Besson and Leos Carax. Themes that run through many of their films include doomed love affairs, young people with peer groups rather than families, a cynical view of the police and the use of the Paris Métro to symbolise an alternative, underground society. The mixture of 'high' culture, such as the opera music of Diva and Les Amants du Pont-Neuf and pop culture, for example the references to Batman in Subway, was another key feature. ^[3]Unlike most film movements, the Cinéma du look had no clear political ideology.

Key directors and key films

Jean-Jacques Beineix

• Diva (1981)
• 37°2 le matin (English: Betty Blue) (1986)

Luc Besson

• Subway (1985)
• Le Grand bleu (English: The Big Blue) (1988)
• Nikita (1990)

Leos Carax

• Mauvais Sang (1986)
• Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (1991)

Notes

1. ^ Contemporary French Cinema — Guy Austin
2. ^ French Cinema — Powrie & Reader
3. ^ Contemporary French Cinema — Guy Austin

Sources and external links

• Patricia Allmer - Institute of Film Studies, University of Nottingham
• Will da Shaman, Netribution Film Network
• Guy Austin "Contemporary French Cinema: An Introduction" A Review by J. Emmett Winn