Cinema Du Look

This week we learned about a French film movement of the 80’s known as Cinema Du Look. The 80’s proved to be a rough time for French cinema. Television and economic hardships were starting to take a toll on the film industry. The new socialist government also enforced spending restraints. Cinema Du Look was able to provide a makeover for multiple genres. Under this government, support for new films was stronger than ever, which was crucial for a declining industry. Cinema Du Look was lead by three directors: Luc Besson, Jean-Jacques Beineix, and Leos Carax. The leaders of this era were well known for favoring style over substance, spectacle over narrative, and all shared and perfected this “look”. Films of this period had a slick visual style and focused on the marginalized youth of France. They also didn’t care so much about the context or substance of the film, but rather the visuals and style. As technology advanced as well, filmmakers got to use these new inventions in their films. These films were majorly influenced by pop culture. Some main themes used in films of this decade included doomed love affairs, alienated youth, lives of young people and their friends, lacks family aspects, dark perspective of police, fetishism to create artistic, political, or psychological substance, and even the Paris Metro being a symbol of an alternative underground society.

I have seen another Jean-Jacques Beineix’s film,Betty Blue. The movie follows two star-crossed lovers who run into trouble around every corner. The movie starts light but just continuously goes in a downward spiral. But there are a lot of beautiful scenes in this movie, especially the first setting with the beach houses. I feel there is also an essence of Godard’s new wave film À Bout de Souffle within this film as well. The film became an international success and is still a notable cult film in France.

For our screening this week, we watched a film directed by one of the filmmakers from this era, Jean-Jacques Beineix, called Diva. I really enjoyed this film. While watching I just thought how could something be so lovely but so absurd at the same time. There were many beautiful scenes that really caught my attention and had me fully engaged with film to the end. It’s a love story and a crime story in one. Ofcourse, as a movie from an era that didn’t care much about storylines at all, I can see how one might find it difficult to follow. I felt there was a lot of randomness that could steer you away from what is going on, but that’s the point. The story isn’t so much as important as the overall visual look. The film covered some of the common themes of this era like the fetish (Jules obsession with opera music, making him fall in love with the singer Cynthia), corrupt police officers, and the Paris Metro. Overall, the combination of action, romance, corruption and crime, and whatever else I must’ve missed, truly made the movie unique and true to the era of Cinema Du Look.