Maurice Félix Thomas ( French pronunciation: [mɔʁis feliks tɔmɑ] ; 2 February 1876 – 4 August 1961), known as Maurice Tourneur ( pronounced [tuʁnœʁ] ), was a French film director and screenwriter .
59-703: The Prix Patrick Dewaere is awarded annually to a young and upcoming actor working in the French film industry . It was initiated in 2008 and is named after the French actor Patrick Dewaere (1947–1982). It replaced the Prix Jean Gabin which was awarded from 1981 to 2006. The prize is awarded by a jury each year in Paris in conjunction with the Prix Romy Schneider . Cinema of France The cinema of France comprises
118-511: A 1949 automobile accident in which he was seriously injured and lost a leg. Health and age prevented him from directing more films, but a voracious reader and a skilled hobby artist, he kept busy painting and translating detective novels from English into French. After his death in 1961, Maurice Tourneur was interred in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Maurice Tourneur was honored with
177-823: A billion admissions in the US alone), Hindi (?: no accurate data but estimated at 3 billion for the whole India/Indian languages) and Chinese (275 million in China plus a few million abroad), but above films shot in Korean (115 million admissions in South Korea plus a few millions abroad) and Japanese (102 million admissions in Japan plus a few million abroad, a record since 1973 et its 104 million admissions). French-language movies ranked 2nd in export (outside of French-speaking countries) after films in English. 2012
236-534: A broadcast license requiring it to support the production of movies. Some taxes are levied on movies and TV channels for use as subsidies for movie production. The French national and regional governments also involve themselves in film production. For example, the award-winning documentary In the Land of the Deaf ( Le Pays des sourds ), created by Nicolas Philibert in 1992, was co-produced by multinational partners, reducing
295-522: A closer and truer view of humanity...” - Maurice Tourneur in Shadowland , May 1920. Tourneur admired D.W. Griffith and considered the skill level of American actors at the time ahead of their counterparts in Europe . Of the actresses he worked with, he called Mary Pickford the finest screen actress in the world and believed that stage actress Elsie Ferguson was a brilliant artist. However, Tourneur opposed
354-457: 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 , de Funès and Terry-Thomas , was the most successful film in French theaters for more than 30 years. Another example
413-716: A masterpiece. Mathieu Kassovitz 's 1995 film Hate ( La Haine ) received critical praise and made Vincent Cassel a star, and in 1997, Juliette Binoche won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The English Patient . The success of Michel Ocelot 's Kirikou and the Sorceress in 1998 rejuvenated the production of original feature-length animated films by such filmmakers as Jean-François Laguionie and Sylvain Chomet . In 2000, Philippe Binant realized
472-429: A series of distorted areas, obscure visions, metamorphoses and synthetic objects. Indeed, in the film, the human may be viewed as a fetish object (for example, the doll hanging by a thread), with reference to Kafkaesque and Freudian theories on automata and the fear of man faced with something as complex as him. The ascent of the stairs would be the liberation of the ideas of death, culture, and sex that makes us reach
531-727: A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6243 Hollywood Blvd. His 1917 film, The Poor Little Rich Girl , his 1918 film The Blue Bird and his 1920 film The Last of the Mohicans have since been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry . Recently, the American Film Institute's Center for Film and Video Preservation and
590-510: A visual distinctiveness that met with critical acclaim. “Making pictures is a commercial business, the same as making soap and, to be successful, one must make a commodity that will sell. We have a choice between making bad, silly, childish and useless pictures, which make a lot of money, and make everybody rich, or nice stories, which nobody wants to see...the American film producers will have to change entirely their machine-made stories and come to
649-422: A young Natalie Portman ), and in 1997 The Fifth Element , which became a cult favorite and launched the career of Milla Jovovich . Jean-Pierre Jeunet made Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children ( La Cité des enfants perdus ), both of which featured a distinctly fantastical style. In 1992, Claude Sautet co-wrote (with Jacques Fieschi) and directed Un Coeur en Hiver , considered by many to be
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#1732872079536708-575: Is Gérard Oury and Édouard Molinaro . The 1979 film La Cage aux Folles ran for well over a year at the Paris Theatre , an arthouse cinema in New York City, and was a commercial success at theaters throughout the country, in both urban and rural areas. It won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film , and for years it remained the most successful foreign film to be released in
767-632: Is largely due to the commercial strength of domestic productions. In 2013, France was the second largest exporter of films in the world after the United States, and a 2014 study showed that French cinema was the most appreciated by global audiences after that of the US. France has had a very strong film industry, due in part to protections afforded by the French Government . The French government has implemented various measures aimed at supporting local film production and movie theaters. Canal+ has
826-586: 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)
885-469: The Cité du cinéma , a major studio north of the city, and Disney Studio, a theme park devoted to the cinema. Notable French film distribution and/or production companies include: Maurice Tourneur Born Maurice Félix Thomas in the Épinettes district ( 17th arrondissement of Paris ), his father was a wholesaler. As a young man, Maurice Thomas first trained as a graphic designer and a magazine illustrator but
944-539: 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 )
1003-500: 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 has had a very strong film industry due in part to protections afforded by the French Government . In 2013, France
1062-566: The 1944 novella of the same name by Colette . 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
1121-542: The Cannes Festival, for direction ( Tony Gatlif , Exils , 2004), screenplay ( Agnès Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri , Look at Me , 2004), female acting ( Isabelle Huppert , The Piano Teacher , 2001; Charlotte Gainsbourg , Antichrist , 2009) and male acting ( Jamel Debbouze , Samy Naceri , Roschdy Zem , Sami Bouajila and Bernard Blancan , Days of Glory , 2006). The 2008 rural comedy Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis drew an audience of more than 20 million,
1180-611: The Eightees they are added by a new generation including Sophie Marceau , Emmanuelle Béart , Jean-Hugues Anglade , Sabine Azema , Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil . In 1968, the May riots shook France. François Truffaut had already organised demonstrations in February against Henri Langlois 's removal as head of the Cinémathèque française and dedicated his film Stolen Kisses , which
1239-507: The Nouvelle Vague except for a few essays, Truffaut and Chabrol remain the leading directors whose artistic aspects remain commercially successful. Other directors of the 1970s in this effect are Bertrand Tavernier , Claude Sautet , Eric Rohmer , Claude Lelouch , Georges Lautner , Jean-Paul Rappeneau , Michel Deville Yves Boisset , Maurice Pialat , Bertrand Blier , Coline Serreau and André Téchiné in purely entertainment films, it
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#17328720795361298-517: The Pathé-Palace (both 1911), cinema became an economic challenger to theater by 1914. 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
1357-456: The United States. Jean-Jacques Beineix 's Diva (1981) sparked the beginning of the 1980s wave of French cinema. Movies which followed in its wake included Betty Blue ( 37°2 le matin , 1986) by Beineix, The Big Blue ( Le Grand bleu , 1988) by Luc Besson , and The Lovers on the Bridge ( Les Amants du Pont-Neuf , 1991) by Léos Carax . Made with a slick commercial style and emphasizing
1416-618: The Wolf became the sixth-highest-grossing French-language film of all time in the United States and went on to gross more than $ 70 million worldwide. In 2008, Marion Cotillard won the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her portrayal of legendary French singer Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose , the first French-language performance to be so honored. The film won two Oscars and four BAFTAs and became
1475-466: The alienation of their main characters, these films are representative of the style known as Cinema du look . Camille Claudel , directed by newcomer Bruno Nuytten and starring Isabelle Adjani and Gérard Depardieu , was a major commercial success in 1988, earning Adjani, who was also the film's co-producer, a César Award for best actress. The historical drama film Jean de Florette (1986) and its sequel Manon des Sources (1986) were among
1534-522: The biggest share, largely due to the commercial strength of domestic productions. The most influential film directors in the history of French cinema are Jean Renoir , Marcel Carné , François Truffaut , Jean-Luc Godard , and Agnès Varda . France has also been a leading destination for filmmakers and actors from around the world. Many film festivals are held in France, including the internationally famous Cannes Film Festival . Les frères Lumière released
1593-411: The characters. Patrick Bokanowski would thus have total control over the "matter" of the image and its optical composition. This is especially noticeable throughout the film, with images taken through distorted objectives or a plastic work on the sets and costumes, for example in the scene of the designer. Patrick Bokanowski creates his own universe and obeys his own aesthetic logic. It takes us through
1652-934: 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
1711-429: The country. The highest-grossing film was Taken 3 (€261.7 million) and the largest territory in admissions was China (14.7 million). In that year, France produced more films than any other European country, producing a record-breaking 300 feature-length films. France is 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
1770-494: The emblematic figure of the angel. Jean-Paul Rappeneau's Cyrano de Bergerac was a major box-office success in 1990, earning several César Awards , including best actor for Gérard Depardieu , as well as an Academy Award nomination for best foreign picture. Luc Besson made La Femme Nikita in 1990, a movie that inspired remakes in both United States and in Hong Kong. In 1994, he also made Léon (starring Jean Reno and
1829-547: The entire range of French filmmaking today, Tim Palmer calls contemporary cinema in France a kind of eco-system, in which commercial cinema co-exists with artistic radicalism, first-time directors (who make up about 40% of all France's directors each year) mingle with veterans, and there even occasionally emerges a fascinating pop-art hybridity, in which the features of intellectual and mass cinemas are interrelated (as in filmmakers like Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Olivier Assayas, Maïwenn, Sophie Fillières, Serge Bozon, and others). One of
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1888-435: The evolving star system that Carl Laemmle had begun with his advertising campaign for actress Florence Lawrence . After directing several innovative films for Adolph Zukor 's Artcraft Pictures Corporation (which released through Paramount ) in 1917 and 1918, Tourneur launched his own production company with the film Sporting Life . In 1921 he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. By 1922 he believed that
1947-589: The financial risks inherent in the project and ensuring enhanced distribution opportunities. On 2 February 2000 in Paris , Philippe Binant realized the first digital cinema projection in Europe , with the DLP Cinema technology developed by Texas Instruments . In 2011 Paris had the highest density of cinemas in the world, measured by the number of movie theaters per inhabitant, In most downtown Paris movie theaters, foreign or arthouse films movies are shown alongside mainstream movies. Paris also boasts
2006-525: The first digital cinema projection in Europe , with the DLP CINEMA technology developed by Texas Instruments , in Paris. In 2001, after a brief stint in Hollywood, Jean-Pierre Jeunet returned to France with Amélie ( Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain ) starring Audrey Tautou . It became the highest-grossing French-language film ever released in the United States. The following year, Brotherhood of
2065-737: The first French film to do so. Its $ 193 million gross in France puts it just behind Titanic as the most successful film of all time in French theaters. In the 2000s, several French directors made international productions, often in the action genre. These include Gérard Pirès ( Riders , 2002), Pitof ( Catwoman , 2004), Jean-François Richet ( Assault on Precinct 13 , 2005), Florent Emilio Siri ( Hostage , 2005), Christophe Gans ( Silent Hill , 2006), Mathieu Kassovitz ( Babylon A.D. , 2008), Louis Leterrier ( The Transporter , 2002; Transporter 2 , 2005; Olivier Megaton directed Transporter 3 , 2008), Alexandre Aja ( Mirrors , 2008), and Pierre Morel ( Taken , 2009). Surveying
2124-520: The first projection with the Cinematograph , in Paris on 28 December 1895, with first public showing in the Eden Theatre, La Ciotat . 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
2183-402: The foreign films). After ten weeks nearly 17.5 million people had seen the film in France, Intouchables was the second most-seen French movie of all time in France, and the third including foreign movies. In 2012, with 226 million admissions (US$ 1,900 million) in the world for French films (582 films released in 84 countries), including 82 million admissions in France (US$ 700 million), 2012 was
2242-797: 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
2301-510: The fourth best year since 1985. With 144 million admissions outside France (US$ 1,200 million), 2012 was the best year since at least 1994 (since Unifrance collects data), and the French cinema reached a market share of 2.95% of worldwide admissions and of 4.86% of worldwide sales. Three films particularly contributed to this record year: Taken 2 , The Intouchables and The Artist . In 2012, films shot in French ranked 4th in admissions (145 million) behind films shot in English (more than
2360-508: The future of the film industry lay in Hollywood and the following year he was hired by Samuel Goldwyn to go to the West Coast and make a film version of the Hall Caine novel The Christian . However, Tourneur's career in the United States faltered in the 1920s as his pictorialism sometimes hampered the narrative drive of his later films, and he also separated from his wife Fernande in 1923. He
2419-481: The global market, and in 2023, 15th by the same metric with a 0.44% share. Overall, France sits fourth on the tracker's all-time box office chart behind the US, UK, and China. In 2015, France produced more films than any other European country, producing a record-breaking 300 feature-length films (since broken multiple times by the UK and France itself ). France is one of the few countries where non-American productions have
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2478-475: 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. After World War II, the French actress Leslie Caron and the French actor Louis Jourdan enjoyed success in the United States with several musical romantic comedies , notably An American in Paris (1951) and Gigi (1958), based on
2537-557: The highest grossing French films in history and brought Daniel Auteuil international recognition. According to Raphaël Bassan , in his article « The Angel : Un météore dans le ciel de l'animation,» La Revue du cinéma , n° 393, avril 1984. (in French) , Patrick Bokanowski 's The Angel , shown in 1982 at the Cannes Film Festival , can be considered the beginnings of contemporary animation. The masks erase all human personality in
2596-720: The last starring Clara Kimball Young and noted stage actor Wilton Lackaye as Svengali. Before long, Maurice Tourneur was a major and respected force in American film and a founding member of the East Coast chapter of the Motion Picture Directors Association . As the feature film evolved in the mid 1910s, he and his team (comprising screenwriter Charles Maigne , art director Ben Carré , and cameramen John van den Broek and Lucien Andriot ) coupled exceptional technological skill with unique pictorial and architectural sensibilities in their productions, giving their films
2655-481: The most noticed and best reviewed films of 2010 was the drama Of Gods and Men ( Des hommes et des dieux ), about the assassination of seven monks in Tibhirine, Algeria . 2011 saw the release of The Artist , a silent film shot in black and white by Michel Hazanavicius that reflected on the end of Hollywood's silent era . French cinema continued its upward trend of earning awards at the Cannes Festival, including
2714-564: 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 . Méliès invented many of the techniques of cinematic grammar, and among his fantastic, surreal short subjects
2773-683: 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 , Stéphane Audran and Isabelle Adjani . During
2832-631: The prestigious Grand Prix for Of Gods and Men (2010) and the Jury Prize for Poliss (2011); the Best Director Award for Mathieu Amalric ( On Tour , 2010); the Best Actress Award for Juliette Binoche ( Certified Copy , 2010); and the Best Actor Award for Jean Dujardin ( The Artist , 2011). In 2011, the film Intouchables became the most watched film in France (including
2891-430: 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
2950-837: The theater company for the great star Gabrielle Réjane . Drawn to the new art of filmmaking, in 1911 he began working as an assistant director for the Éclair company. A quick learner and an innovator, within a short time he was directing films on his own using major French stars of the day such as Polaire . In 1914, with the expansion of the giant French film companies into the United States market, Tourneur moved to New York City to direct silent films for Éclair's American branch studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey before moving to William A. Brady 's World Film Corporation , where he directed important early American feature-length films such as The Wishing Ring , Alias Jimmy Valentine , The Cub ( Martha Hedman 's only screen performance) and Trilby ,
3009-485: The third-highest-grossing French-language film in the United States since 1980. Cotillard was the first female and second person to win both an Academy Award and César Award for the same performance. At the 2008 Cannes Film Festival , Entre les murs ( The Class ) won the Palme d'Or , the 6th French victory at the festival. The 2000s also saw an increase in the number of individual competitive awards won by French artists at
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#17328720795363068-541: 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
3127-480: Was also the year French animation studio Mac Guff was acquired by an American studio, Universal Pictures , through its Illumination Entertainment subsidiary. Illumination Mac Guff became the animation studio for some of the top English-language animated movies of the 2010s, including The Lorax and the Despicable Me franchise. In 2015 French cinema sold 106 million tickets and grossed €600 million outside of
3186-474: Was being made, to Langlois. The Cannes Film Festival is cancelled – on the initiative of Truffaut, Godard and Louis Malle. Jean-Luc Godard no longer works in the commercial film business for years. Political films such as Costa-Gavras ' Z celebrate success. Chabrol continues his vivisection of the bourgeoisie ( The Unfaithful Wife ) and Truffaut explores the possibility of bourgeois marital happiness ( Bed and Board ). While Godard disappears from cinema after
3245-513: 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. In the magazine Cahiers du cinéma , founded by André Bazin and two other writers in 1951, film critics raised the level of discussion of
3304-459: 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
3363-615: Was removed from production on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 's version of Jules Verne 's The Mysterious Island in 1928, and this marked the end of his American career. After his trouble with MGM, Tourneur decided to move back to his native France. There, he continued to make films both at home and in Germany, easily making the change to talkies . In 1933 he met his second wife, actress Louise Lagrange (1898–1979), while shooting his film, L'Homme mystérieux . Tourneur went on to direct another two dozen films, several of which were crime thrillers, until
3422-435: Was soon drawn to the theater. In 1904, he married the actress Fernande Petit. They had a son, Jacques (1904–1977), who would follow his father into the film industry, establishing his own reputation as a director of American films in the 1940s and 1950s. Using the stage name Maurice Tourneur, he began his show business career performing in secondary roles on stage and eventually toured England and South America as part of
3481-409: Was the second largest exporter of films in the world after the United States, and a 2014 study showed that French cinema was the most appreciated by global audiences after that of the US. According to industry tracker The Numbers , the fortunes of French film exports have since declined: in 2019, France had fallen to the position of 7th largest exporter by total box office revenue with a 2.01% share of
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