Publisher Description

One of the most gifted directors of the post New Wave, Maurice Pialat is frequently compared to such legendary filmmakers as Jean Renoir and Robert Bresson. A quintessentially realist filmmaker, who, like Bresson, was also trained as a painter, Pialat's particular form of realism influenced an entire generation of young filmmakers in the 1990s.This volume is the first book-length study of Pialat's cinema in English. It provides an introduction to a complex and difficult director, who saw himself as a marginal and marginalised filmmaker, but whose films are deeply rooted in French society and culture. Pialat was long considered the only major filmmaker to portray 'la France profonde', the heart of France - the people who, as he put it, 'take the subway'. Taken as a whole, Pialat's work can be seen both as an oblique autobiography and the portrait of a fundamental institution - the family - over several generations. -- .

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One of the most gifted directors of the post New Wave, Maurice Pialat is frequently compared to such legendary filmmakers as Jean Renoir and Robert Bresson. A quintessentially realist filmmaker, who, like Bresson, was also trained as a painter, Pialat's particular form of realism influenced an entire generation of young filmmakers in the 1990s. This volume is the first book-length study of Pialat's cinema in English. It provides an introduction to a complex and difficult director, who saw himself as a marginal and marginalised filmmaker, but whose films are deeply rooted in French society and culture. Pialat was long considered the only major filmmaker to portray 'la France profonde', the heart of France - the people who, as he put it, 'take the subway'. Taken as a whole, Pialat's work can be seen both as an oblique autobiography and the portrait of a fundamental institution - the family - over several generations.

Author Biography

Marja Warehime is Associate Professor of French at the University of South Carolina

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Maurice Pialat, the outsider
2. Pialat and La Nouvelle Vague
3. A family of works
4. Family portraits I: Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble, La Gueule ouverte and Passe ton bac d'abord
5. Family portraits II: Loulou, A nos amours and Police
6. The saint and the artist: men apart
7. Conclusion: paternity and Le Garçu
FILMOGRAPHY
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Promotional

One of the most gifted French directors of the post New Wave, Maurice Pialat is frequently compared to such legendary filmmakers as Jean Renoir and Rebert Bresson. This is the first book-length study of his work in English.

Long Description

One of the most gifted directors of the post New Wave, Maurice Pialat is frequently compared to such legendary filmmakers as Jean Renoir and Robert Bresson. A quintessentially realist filmmaker, who, like Bresson, was also trained as a painter, Pialat's particular form of realism influenced an entire generation of young filmmakers in the 1990s. This volume is the first book-length study of Pialat's cinema in English. It provides an introduction to a complex and difficult director, who saw himself as a marginal and marginalised filmmaker, but whose films are deeply rooted in French society and culture. Pialat was long considered the only major filmmaker to portray 'la France profonde', the heart of France - the people who, as he put it, 'take the subway'. Taken as a whole, Pialat's work can be seen both as an oblique autobiography and the portrait of a fundamental institution - the family - over several generations.

Description for Sales People

The first book-length study of Pialat's cinema in English. Provides an introduction to a complex and difficult director. Gives an overview of the major themes and formal preoccupations of his work. Offers a brief biographical sketch of the filmmaker, and situates Pialat's work in relation to The Nouveau Vague and the popular Saturday night cinema of his childhood. Essential to any collection on film - or French film - and French studies.

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