'Paradis Artificiels' [France, Italy, Portugal & Spain]

Having considered who I'd nominate as the greatest French actress of this century so far, my thoughts then immediately turned to Italian cinema, and I asked myself the very same question. I fear Italian cinema is in a tough spot for a number of reasons. While there are world-renowned filmmakers in Italy like Matteo Garone, Paolo Sorrentino and Luca Guadagnino - all of whom were born during the psychedelic tumult of the counterculture years (late 1960's - early 1970's) - they are also noted for having directed significant works for television. I'm not sure this is true of their French contemporaries, so in Italy, they now seem keen to maintain a foot in each house. I'd like to see them put more focus on their filmmaking, but television is a lucrative business.

Italian genre cinema has never recovered since the bottom fell out of the industry in the late 1980's. The "peplum" is practically defunct, the "spaghetti western" is a thing of the past, "macaroni combat" pictures are no longer made, and the "fumetti" has mutated beyond all recognition. The "giallo" crime format is continually revived but the new versions rarely reach the level of the subgenre's heyday.

The great days of "commedia all'italiana" are also long behind us. These comedies were replaced in the late 1980's with more calculated, family-friendly, moneymaking franchise machines developed by filmmakers like Enrico Oldoini (the 'Anni' series), Neri Parenti (the 'Natale' franchise), Christian De Sica and the late Carlo Vanzina. While I don't wish to be too down about the current state of Italian cinema (it's still streets above what we're producing in the U K at the moment), I do believe this great old film industry could benefit from a change of direction.

As a result of Italy's steep decline, I firmly believe the French film industry is pretty much untouchable at this point, for the very reasons I've outlined in relation to Italy. For 125 years, the French have been making innovative, imaginative and influential works of cinema, and I don't think they've ever experienced a weak decade up to this point. They've aways excelled at making genre films because they've long believed in the Roger Corman idea of embracing cross-genre work through cross-pollination; it's in their DNA and this philosophy is taught in art schools up and down the country.

I think the French film industry is a tried and trusted industry model everybody else in Europe can learn from, and arguably the strongest all-round European fim industry of cinema's first century and a quarter. Still, there's always exciting things happening in European film, and French cinema has serious competition at the moment from Germany, Greece, Spain and Sweden among others.

Something that compounds my problematic view of Italian cinema is that I don't yet see who the next generation of potentially great actors and actresses are, or where they're coming from. So, my choice for the greatest Italian actress of the 21st century (so far) feels old school because it is. It's Claudia Gerini, who entered movies as part of the genre director Sergio Corbucci's stock company. To put this in some kind of time perspective, Corbucci died in 1990 at the age of 63, and his fellow director Sergio Leone died in 1989 at the age of 60. These two filmmakers are now widely acknowledged as being undisputed masters of the "spaghetti western" and Corbucci was also a master of "commedia all'italiana".

Gerini worked as a professional dancer and a showgirl in the early 1990's. This wasn't unusual for an aspiring actress during the "era atteggiamento" ushered in by the success of 'Drive-In', Antonio Ricci's popular television variety show which helped bring Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to power. Gerini became a member of the teenage girls' television dance academy 'Non E La Rai' at the age of 19, but the show became embroiled in scandal over its radical political allegiances and alleged exploitation of minors. Gerini sends up her dance image in the knockabout romantic comedy 'Love Is in the Air' (2012), one of three films she's made with comedy director Fausto Brizzi who often casts her to play alongside her friend and fellow actress Cristiana Capotondi.

Gerini moved to Paris to learn French and she pursued academic studies, travelling regularly between Italy and France early in her career. Back home in Italy, she studied acting at the prestigious Beatrice Bracco school ('Teatro Blu') in Rome, where her fellow students and stage performers included Stafania Rocca (born 24 April 1971, Turin, Italy) and Paola Cortellesi (born 24 November 1973, Rome, Lazio, Italy). They were looking to emulate the success of a generation of formidable Italian actresses being led by the likes of Elena Sofia Ricci (born 29 March 1962, Florence, Tuscany, Italy), Francesca Neri (born 10 February 1964, Trento, Italy), Isabella Ferrari (born 31 March 1964, Ponte dell'Olio, Emilia-Romagna, Italy), Sabrina Ferilli (born 28 June 1964, Rome, Lazio, Italy), Monica Bellucci (born 30 September 1964, Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy), Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (born 16 November 1964, Turin, Piedmont, Italy), Claudia Koll (born 17 May 1965, Rome, Lazio, Italy), Valeria Golino (born 22 October 1965, Naples, Campania, Italy) and Tosca D'Aquino (born 10 June 1966, Naples, Campania, Italy).

In France, Gerini became a member of American filmmaker Bob Swaim's stock company, allowing her to experience work in two of Europe's leading film industries. She's said in interviews that she feels this helped her improve as a performer while developing her craft, though she also credits her theatre training with making her the multi-faceted performer she is today.

-

To draw to a conclusion, I predict the day when the Italian film industry comes roaring back is almost upon us, and I'm confident we will see many new talents emerge from this most artistic of ancient nations. But until that day comes, the inimitable Claudia Gerini remains one of the only actresses to have made great Italian genre films in the 21st century, including fantasy and horror movies which is something worth celebrating. Even better, Gerini's recently completed filming her scenes for 'Diabolik' (scheduled for 2021), a follow-up to Mario Bava's comic book classic 'Danger : Diabolik' (1968), so there's hope for the "fumetti" yet. Long may she continue.

There's been great Spanish filmmakers since the inception of film. Spain had one of the big four European horror film industries in the 1960s and 1970s, a position it held alongside Italy, the United Kingdom and France. However, it was the death of General Francisco Franco in 1975 that allowed Spanish cinema to find its voice on the international stage. The creative reaction in Spain was to push back boundaries and test the limits of state censorship, leading to works of subversion.

The face of Spanish cinema in recent decades has been filmmaker Pedro Almodovar and most of the country's best-known performers have passed through his stock company. Thankfully, the Spanish success story continues to this day; Spain lies at the heart of European cinema.

My favourite Spanish actress of the 21st century (so far) would be Macarena Gomez. I've read that Gomez has become a household name in Spain due to her involvement in the popular soap opera 'La Que Se Avecina', which began airing in 2013. In addition to acting, she's also a professional model, a ballerina and a musician. She's one of Spain's top amateur skiers too, and can often be seen in her favourite red jumpsuits out on the slopes.

Gomez's contemporaries in the acting field include Penelope Cruz (born 28 April 1974, Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain), Elena Anaya (born 17 July 1975, Palencia, Castile and León, Spain), Elsa Pataky (born 18 July 1976, Madrid, Spain), Leonor Watling (born 28 July 1975, Madrid, Spain), Paz Vega (born 2 January 1976, Seville, Andalusia, Spain) and Pilar Lopez De Ayala (born 18 September 1978, Madrid, Spain).

From her early days, Gomez has been greatly respected by fans of science-fiction, fantasy and horror for her work in genre movies. This feeling's now stronger than ever due to her continued dedication to her craft and commitment to genre.

The Sitges Film Festival (Catalan: 'Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya') is one of the world's foremost international festivals specialising in science-fiction, fantasy and horror films. It was established in 1968, when Spain was one of the leading contributors to gothic horror filmmaking, a tradition that continues to this day. The festival takes place annually in the coastal town of Sitges, which is about 34 kilometers away from Barcelona. Gomez is a regular attendee of the festival and has lent the event organisers her support in a myriad of ways.

Gomez works mostly in Spain though she has filmed co-productions in neighbouring France. In recent years, she's become a member of filmmaker Alex De La Iglesia's stock company which seems fitting due to his stature within horror circles. De La Iglesia's directed Gomez in 'Witching & Bitching' (2013). He's also co-produced some of her movies including Juanfer Andres & Esteban Roel's psychological horror 'Shrew's Nest' (2014) which I'm keen to see, Zoe Berriatua's crime drama 'The Heroes Of Evil' (2015), and Eduardo Casanova's surreal shocker 'Skins' (2017) which evolved from his short subject film 'Bath Time' (2014) starring Gomez. More recently, Gomez has been appearing in De La Iglesia's television series '30 Monedas'.

-

This pandemic year, I'm trying to take up a challenge posed by the Society of Film in Metz, France. In celebration of the 125th anniversary of horror cinema, and in honour of Georges Melies' 'The House Of The Devil' (1896), I shall attempt to highlight some work by 125 different filmmakers from France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. This will be directors who were active in cinema within the period, 1896 - 2021.

By limiting entries to just 125, this means you have to think about which directors have made their mark. In some cases, they might have only made one film you enjoy, in others they may have made many, but in the spirit of the task, I'd like to consider carefully some of the great contributors to French, Italian, Portugese and Spanish cinema. Of course, any contributions on this subject from the good people of IMDB2 are greatly appreciated, and anybody posting here is obviously more than welcome to take up this challenge.

For the record, 'The House Of The Devil' was not the first film ever made, but it was an important progression into the world of "cinema fantastique" which combines elements of science-fiction, fantasy and horror. Melies himself went on to make 'The Haunted Castle' (1897). He also made 'A Trip To The Moon' (1902) which is the earliest science-fiction fantasy I know of.

I should like to begin by mentioning a few milestones from the early years of film. These films and filmic inventions were among the first examples of their kind, created by photographers and filmmakers whose work we're still studying today. These experimental artists were often inventors also, and they were among the true pioneers of film.

-

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (born 18 November 1787, Cormeilles-en-Parisis, Val-d'Oise, France), better known as Louis Daguerre, was a French artist and photographer, recognized for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography. He became known as one of the fathers of photography. Though he is most famous for his contributions to photography, he was also an accomplished painter and a developer of the diorama theatre.

Antoine Claudet (born 18 August 1797, La Croix-Rousse, France) was a French photographer and artist active in London who produced daguerreotypes. Early in his career Claudet headed a glass factory at Choisy-le-Roi, Paris, together with Georges Bontemps, and moved to England to promote the factory with a shop in High Holborn, London. Having acquired a share in L. J. M. Daguerre's invention, he became one of England's first commercial photographers using the daguerreotype process for portraiture, improving the sensitizing process by using chlorine (instead of bromine) in addition to iodine, thus gaining greater rapidity of action.
Claudet invented the red darkroom safelight, and it was he who suggested the idea of using a series of photographs to create the illusion of movement. The idea of using painted backdrops has also been attributed to him.

Pierre Jules César Janssen (born 22 February 1824, Paris, France), also known as Jules Janssen, or Julie Cesar, was a French astronomer who, along with English scientist Joseph Norman Lockyer, is credited with discovering the gaseous nature of the solar chromosphere, and with some justification the element helium.

Janssen also came up with the idea for a "revolver photographic". This huge camera system used a Maltese cross-type mechanism, very similar to the system that would later be of great importance in the development of movie cameras. He successfully captured both transits of Venus, 1874 in Japan, that of 1882 at Oran in Algeria. The motion picture was known as Passage de Venus.

Étienne-Jules Marey (born 5 March 1830, Beaune, Côte-d'Or, France) was a French scientist, physiologist and chronophotographer. His work was significant in the development of cardiology, physical instrumentation, aviation, cinematography and the science of laboratory photography.

Marey was a pioneer of photography who directly influenced the history of cinema. In 1882, he developed the Chronophotographe, which could take 12 pictures per second.

Louis Le Prince (born 28 August 1841, Metz, France) was a French artist and the inventor of an early motion picture camera, possibly the first person to shoot a moving picture sequence using a single lens camera and a strip of (paper) film. Although some have credited him as the "Father of Cinematography", his work did not influence the commercial development of cinema — owing at least in part to the great secrecy surrounding it.

A Frenchman who also worked in the United Kingdom and the United States, Le Prince's motion-picture experiments culminated in 1888 in the city of Leeds, England. In October of that year, he filmed moving-picture sequences of family members in Roundhay Garden and his son playing the accordion, using his single-lens camera and Eastman's paper negative film. At some point in the following eighteen months he also made a film of Leeds Bridge. This work may have been slightly in advance of the inventions of contemporaneous moving-picture pioneers such as the British inventors William Friese-Greene and Wordsworth Donisthorpe, and was years in advance of that of Auguste and Louis Lumière, and William Kennedy Dickson (who did the moving image work for Thomas Edison).

Le Prince was never able to perform a planned public demonstration in the US because he mysteriously vanished; he was last known to be boarding a train on 16 September 1890. The reason for his disappearance is not known and his family and supporters invented a series of conspiracy theories, including: a murder set up by Edison, secret homosexuality, disappearance in order to start a new life, and a murder by his brother over their mother's will. No evidence exists for any of these and the most likely explanation remains that he committed suicide, overcome by the shame of heavy debts and the failure of his experiments.

Charles-Émile Reynaud (born 8 December 1844, Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, France) was a French inventor, responsible for the praxinoscope (an animation device patented in 1877 that improved on the zoetrope) and the first projected animated films. His Théâtre Optique film system, patented in 1888, is notable as the first known instance of film perforations being used.

On 28 October 1892 Reynaud gave the first public performance of a moving picture show at the Musée Grévin in Paris, the Théâtre Optique. The show, billed as Pantomimes Lumineuses, included three cartoons, Pauvre Pierrot, Un bon bock, and Le Clown et ses chiens, each consisting of 500 to 600 individually painted images and lasting about 15 minutes. The film was the first to use perforations. The performances predated Auguste and Louis Lumière's first paid public screening of the cinematographe on 26 December 1895, often seen as the birth of cinema.

William Kennedy Dickson (born 3 August 1860, Le Minihic-sur-Rance, Brittany, France) was a Franco-Scottish inventor who devised an early motion picture camera under the employment of Thomas Edison. Blacksmith Scene, by Dickson, is the first Kinetoscope film shown in public exhibition on May 9, 1893 and is the earliest known example of actors performing a role in a film. The Dickson Experimental Sound Film is the first known film with live-recorded sound and appears to be the first motion picture made for the Kinetophone, the proto-sound-film system developed by Dickson and Thomas Edison.

History of the Kinetograph, Kinetoscope, and Kinetophonograph by Antonia and William Kennedy Dickson is considered the first book of history on film. It was published in 1895. In the same year, Dickson made the first hand-colored film, Annabelle Serpentine Dance.

Marius Sestier (born 8 August 1861, Sauzet, Drôme, France) was a French cinematographer, best known for his work in Australia, where he shot some of the country's first films. A pharmacist by profession, Sestier was employed by early filmmakers the Lumière brothers (Auguste and Louis Lumière) to demonstrate their cinématographe abroad. In this capacity he travelled to India in June 1896, where he held a showcase of six short films made by the Lumière brothers at Watson's Hotel, Bombay on 7 July 1896; this was the first time moving pictures had been shown in India. Sestier also shot his own films while in Bombay, but the Lumière brothers rejected these for their catalogue as they were not satisfied with the quality as French customs had opened the package of undeveloped film.

Sestier's short subject documentary Passengers Alighting from Ferry Brighton at Manly (1896) was the first film shot and screened in Australia. Sestier, together with Australian photographer Henry Walter Barnett, made approximately 19 films in Sydney and Melbourne between October and November 1896, these being the very first films recorded in Australia. In September 1896, Sestier and Barnett opened Australia's first cinema, the Salon Lumière in Pitt Street, Sydney.

Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset (born 30 March 1862, Fumay, Ardennes, France) was an early film pioneer in France, active between the years 1905 and 1913. He worked on many genres of film and was particularly associated with the development of detective or crime serials, such as the Nick Carter (possibly the first in history) and Zigomar series.
The most immediate influence of Jasset's work was seen in the films of Louis Feuillade, who was working at the Gaumont Film Company and took the film serial to new heights with Fantômas (1913–14), Les Vampires (1915–16) and Judex (1916). These variously developed the roles of the resourceful detective, the master-criminal, and the mysterious woman of action who had previously appeared in Jasset's Nick Carter, Zigomar and Protéa films.

The Lumière brothers were Auguste Lumière (born 19 October 1862, Besançon, France) and Louis Lumière (born 5 October 1864, Besançon, France). They were manufacturers of photography equipment, best known for their Cinématographe motion picture system and the short films they produced between 1895 and 1905. Their screening of a single film on 22 March 1895 for around 200 members of the "Society for the Development of the National Industry" in Paris was probably the first presentation of projected film. Their first commercial public screening on 28 December 1895 for around 40 paying visitors and invited relations has traditionally been regarded as the birth of cinema, although it had in fact been preceded by paying shows to thousands of people in the USA and Germany.

L'Arroseur Arrosé (also known as The Waterer Watered and The Sprinkler Sprinkled) is an 1895 French short black-and-white silent comedy film directed and produced by Louis Lumière and starring François Clerc and Benoît Duval. It was first screened on June 10, 1895. It is the earliest known instance of film comedy, the first use of film to portray a fictional story, and the first use of a promotional film poster. The film was originally known as Le Jardinier ("The Gardener") or Le Jardinier et le petit espiègle, and is sometimes referred to in English as The Tables Turned on the Gardener, and The Sprinkler Sprinkled.

Michel-Antoine Carré (born 7 February 1865, Paris, France) was a French actor, stage and film director, and writer of opera librettos, stage plays and film scripts. He was the son of the librettist Michel Carré (père) (1821–1872) and cousin of the theatre director Albert Carré (his father's nephew). His libretto for André Messager's 1894 opera Mirette was never performed in France but was performed in an English adaptation in London at the Savoy Theatre.

L'Enfant prodigue ("The Prodigal Son") was the first feature-length motion picture produced in Europe, running 90 minutes. Directed by Michel Carré, from his own three-act stage pantomime, the film was basically an unmodified, filmed record of his play. It was filmed at the Gaumont Film Company studios in May 1907 and the movie premiered at the Théâtre des Variétés on the Boulevard Montmartre, in Paris, on 20 June 1907.

Ferdinand Zecca (born 19 February 1864, Paris, France) was a pioneer French film director, film producer, actor and screenwriter. He worked primarily for the Pathé company, first in artistic endeavors then in administration of the internationally based company.
Zecca's Histoire d'un crime (1901), stylistically innovative in its use of superimposition, was the first film to use flashbacks to create a non-linear narrative. Zecca explored many themes from the mundane to the fantastic. In À la conquête de l'air (1901), a strange flying machine, called Fend-l'air, was seen flying over the rooftops of Belleville. By using trick photography, the one-minute short was notable in being the first aviation film, predating the flight by the Wright Brothers by two years.

Alice Guy-Blaché (born 1 July 1873, Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, France) was a French pioneer filmmaker, active from the late 19th century, and one of the first to make a narrative fiction film. She was the first woman to direct a film. From 1896 to 1906, she was probably the only female filmmaker in the world. She experimented with Gaumont's Chronophone sync-sound system, and with color-tinting, interracial casting, and special effects.

In 1896, Guy-Blaché directed La Fée aux Choux (The Fairy of the Cabbages) which is significant in the history of cinema. The Cabbage Fairy is often acknowledged as the first narrative fiction film. This movie is also credited as having introduced screenplays for the first time.
In 1912, Guy-Blaché made the film A Fool and His Money, probably the first to have an all-African-American cast. The film is now at the National Center for Film and Video Preservation at the American Film Institute.

-

- - - - -

The first director I've chosen is Maurice Tourneur whose career in cinema covers the evolution of the cinematic form itself. In the 1900s, Tourneur was a member of a touring theatre company that included actress Gabrielle Rejane. He became an assistant director at Laboratoires Eclair, a film laboratory and camera manufacturing company established in Épinay-sur-Seine, France by Charles Jourjon in 1907. He started making experimental films with a small company of artists, including music hall performer Polaire. Tourneur was so gifted behind the camera, he was offered an opportunity to work in America, and he departed France with several trusted colleagues in tow, taking up a senior position at Eclair's newly opened American studio branch in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

It was during his time in America that Tourneur directed some of the great motion pictures of the silent movie era. He frequently collaborated with Canadian actress Mary Pickford, a devout Catholic who became known as "America's sweetheart". His films 'The Poor Little Rich Girl' (1917), 'The Blue Bird' (1918) and 'The Last Of The Mohicans' (1920) have all been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. He returned to France in the late 1920s where he directed 'The Crew' (1928) with American actress Claire de Lorez.

TRIVIA : Maurice Tourneur's son, Jacques Tourneur, studied filmmaking under the strict tutelage of his father from an early age. Jacques was recruited in America by film producer Val Lewton to direct a series of lurid horror fantasies for RKO Studios. Trained as an editor, Jacques joined with Canadian editor-turned-director Mark Robson and American editor-turned-director Robert Wise to create a revolution in genre cinema, rewriting some of the cinematic rules his father had helped draw up during the silent era.

Jean Cocteau was a poet, playwright, diarist and novelist. He was also a gifted artist and a man hellbent on experimentation. He was a paying regular at Le Boeuf sur le Toit (The Ox on the Roof) throughout the 1920s, a Parisian cabaret bar whose clientele's creations were woven into the fabric of the city's avant-garde arts scene. The first two surrealist manifestos by Yvan Goll and André Breton were published in 1924, by which point Cocteau had become one of the most influential figures in the arts. He turned to filmmaking in 1930, utilising the camera to convey broken shards of his own drawings and writings.

TRIVIA : Jean Cocteau died a day after the death of one of his closest friends and collaborators, chanteuse Édith Piaf, for whom he wrote the play 'The Beautiful Indifferent' (1940, Le Bel Indifférent).

Jean Renoir is my favourite French filmmaker from the era that's come to be known as "the Golden Age of Cinema". His parents were impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and artist's model Aline Charigot, who's the subject of some of Pierre-Auguste's paintings. His brother was actor Pierre Renoir.

Jean married actress and model Catherine Hessling in 1920. Hessling had been working as a live model for Pierre-Auguste on the recommendation of painter Henri Matisse. Hessling was Jean's artistic muse and she appeared in many of the films he directed during the silent era.

Renoir's technical skill and virtuosity enabled him to make a smooth transition to shooting motion pictures with sound. He worked successfully in America during World War 2, and though he later returned to France for work purposes, America became his home. He received an honorary Lifetime Achievement Oscar in 1975 from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, for contributions made to the motion picture industry.

TRIVIA : Jean Renoir's nephew, Claude Renoir, was a cinematographer.

Julien Duvivier worked at the Gaumont Film Company in the 1920s where he came under the influence of filmmakers like André Antoine, Louis Feuillade and Marcel L'Herbier. This training ground proved crucial to the development of his skills as a working director. He first worked with Jean Gabin on 'Maria Chapdelaine' (1934) and this proved to be the first of many collaborations between director and actor.

Jean Renoir was one of Julien Duvivier's greatest admirers and both directors worked successfully in America during the 2nd World War. While I've seen a great deal of Renoir's creative output, I've not been able to see nearly as much of Duvivier's work, but as with Renoir, I can see Duvivier was clearly a great technician. Renoir described Duvivier as a "great poet", and he was one of the pioneers of an artistic movement that came to be known as "poetic realism" within French cinema. His films I've been lucky enough to see have been drenched in poetic imagery.

Avant-garde filmmaker René Clair studied philosophy before entering cinema. It's often joked that he never left silent cinema behind, a thought reinforced by the words of film theorist André Bazin who considered Clair to be a silent filmmaker first and foremost. As such, I think his finest work in talkies came about when he worked in the comedy and fantasy genres, where he could use words for their humour, musicality and rhythm. In general, I think of Clair as being one of cinema's great comic fantasists.

Like Jean Renoir and Julien Duvivier, Clair worked successfully in America during the 2nd World War, having enjoyed a short stint in the United Kingdom in the mid-1930s. It was during the 1940s that Jean Cocteau mounted a tribute to Rene Clair's supernatural fantasy 'I Married A Witch' (1942) at Théâtre de la Mode (Theatre of Fashion), a touring exhibit of mannequins.

-  -  -  -  -

Filmmaker Jacques Becker served a long apprenticeship under Jean Renoir in the 1930s. Having worked as an assistant director on many of Renoir's films, Becker was handed an opportunity to direct his first full-length feature in 1939, but the outbreak of the 2nd World War complicated matters. Becker was arrested, detained and held in a prisoner-of-war camp. Upon his release, he began working with members of the French Resistance in occupied France, a militarised anti-Nazi movement, which was a particularly dangerous position to be taking up within the arts. His experiences during wartime are reflected upon in some of his films, notably 'The Hole' (1960).

Becker made movies in a variety of genres and he was comfortable working on large-scale studio projects. His friendship with Renoir is said to have been built upon their shared passion for art and jazz music, but both men were also interested in fashion design (Becker's mother managed a fashion house in Paris when he was young). The costumes in Becker's films were immaculate, whether he was dressing a peasant, a pauper or a royal subject. His post-war picture 'Paris Frills' (1945) is set within the world of high fashion.

TRIVIA : Jacques Becker's son Jean Becker, with Geneviève Boyard, became a filmmaker. Their son Étienne Becker became a cinematographer.

There are different schools of comedy in France and you'll find many active comedy troupes at any one given time. In the silent movie era, Charles Prince and Max Linder reigned at the box-office as French cinema's slapstick kings supreme. In the case of Jacques Tati, however, he seems to have always stood alone, with feet far apart. Tati's work influenced a generation of French comics who were younger than him, including some of those he worked with, such as mime Marcel Marceau, and clown Pierre Étaix.

Tati made short films in the 1930s. He became a clown-for-hire in the 1940s, though he was always selective in his roles. He was considered for a part in Marcel Carne's 'Children Of Paradise' (1945), though the role went to the right performer as mime Jean-Louis Barrault had worked on several projects with Carne in the past. Tati waited patiently for the opportunity to direct his own feature-length film and he was able to expand upon ideas conceived through his theatre work and short subject films with his debut feature, 'The Big Day' (1949), which drew heavily from his recent comedy short 'The School For Postmen' (1947).

TRIVIA : Artist and filmmaker David Lynch is a leading voice on the work of Jacques Tati, whom he once described as being some kind of "kindred soul".

- - - - -

Henri-Georges Clouzot is considered by some film commentators to be French sound cinema's first true "Master of Suspense", which is interesting as it's been well documented that "Master of Suspense" Alfred Hitchcock considered Clouzot to be one of his few serious cinematic rivals. Like Hitchcock, Clouzot was indebted to the "German expressionism" film movement of the 1920s. Clouzot lived in Germany in the early 1930s, before moving on to Switzerland, and then returing to France at the end of the decade.

The creative work of German film directors Robert Wiene, Paul Leni, F.W. Murnau, John Brahm, William Dieterle and Robert Siodmak would leave a lasting impression on Clouzot as he gradually developed his own filmmaking career. The same was true of Austrian directors like Fritz Lang, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder and Fred Zinnemann, as well as Czech-Austrian director Edgar G. Ulmer. Some of these men had worked under Max Reinhardt in the theatres of Vienna. Reinhardt was a direct influence upon the look and development of expressionist film. Although Ulmer claimed to have lived and worked in Germany in the early 1920s, the body of evidence supports the idea that his induction into film came later in the decade when he took up a position under early mentor Murnau who'd moved on to Hollywood. Ulmer was said to have originally cut his creative cloth as a part of Reinhardt's theatre troupe. So, it's complicated tracing the path of just one of these great directors, but there was undoubtedly a wider Central European arts community with a strong regional bond, and I think this is something that tied all these talents together.

I mention all this because almost all of these men became celluloid crime specialists and so did Clouzot. I feel this is in part because their collective visual sense was dark and captured the psychological bonds and complexities of the criminal character perfectly. The shadows and suggestiveness of expressionist visuals lent themselves particularly well to manifesting the darkest recesses of the criminal mind, especially in the days of strict film censorship. Clouzot's works came to characterise something about Europe's immediate post-war gloom and it was no surprise when he found himself being temporarily banned from making films in the aftermath of the 2nd World War.

Luchino Visconti was a giant of Italian art, theatre and opera who played the cello. The breadth, depth and scale of his work in cinema was befitting of a man who embodied the artistic traditions of Italian opera. Today, he's considered one of the "Fathers of Neorealism", as well as Italy's great chronicler of the slow and painful death of the ruling aristocracy. No subject was too big and no canvas too small, as Visconti could mount stunning imagery using any visual form, regardless of the tools he'd been given.

Another attribute of Visconti's skill-set is that he and his teams of screenwriters were adept at translating heavy literary works for the big screen without being seen as having betrayed the original text, creating films that complimented their source material but were their own artistic entity.

The first Visconti movie I saw was 'The Leopard' (1963) which was recommended by Martin Scorsese when I was a boy. Along with John Ford's western 'The Searchers' (1956), I believe it's a film that's pretty much never left Scorsese's ranked, written list of his all-time favourite movies, whether he's been asked to list just 5, or as many as 55. Once I'd seen 'The Leopard' for myself, I could understand why. For my money, some of Visconti's small-scale pictures are equally good though.

TRIVIA : Luchino Visconti's nephew Eriprando Visconti became a filmmaker.

Some directors are just experts in their craft and Giorgio Ferroni is a point in case. I think his early forays into "neorealism" hold up well as he was a classical storyteller who placed an emphasis on narrative. He specialised in making "peplum" films and "spaghetti westerns" in the 1960s and brought the hand of a seasoned craftsman to every picture he directed.

I'm not the biggest fan of the historic "peplum" fantasy genre when it comes to Italy's unusual cinematic subgenres as many of the films were muscle & fitness workouts dressed up as historical drama, but Ferroni contributed some entertaining entries early in the original cycle that leant more heavily on ancient mythology and these movies look pretty amazing now if you see them in their restored widescreen prints.

- - - - -

- - - - -

Filmmaker Mario Bava was one of Italian cinema's true pioneers. His father was artist, cinematographer and special effects pioneer Eugenio Bava. Mario followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a painter and sculptor, training as a cinematographer and creating special effects for cinema. His skill with lighting, his abilty with special effects and his remarkable gift for camera trickery ensured that Mario was always in demand at the studios, but he longed to direct his own fantasy features. He was also hired during his early career as an on-set stills photographer because he created so many iconic images in Italian film, like his lensing of actress Gina Lollobrigida in Duilio Coletti's comedy 'My Beautful Daughter' (1950) which traded in on publicity engineered by her participation in the Miss Italy beauty pageant of 1947 (a contest won by actress Lucia Bosè).

Bava started directing isolated scenes of other director's films while working as a cameraman and assistant director, which has led to much conjecture about his early career. He co-directed 'The Day The Sky Exploded' (1958) with Paolo Heusch, which is sometimes - perhaps somewhat erroneously - referred to as Italy's first science-fiction film. This is because it's regarded by some genre purists as being "pura fantascienza" (pure science-fiction) in nature.

Bava's also said to have directed parts of Egyptian-born director Riccardo Freda's early forays into gothic horror due to Freda departing shoots prematurely. Freda's reputation as a director is also strong and he was a mentor to Mario Bava. I'm not sure which sections of these films are latterly accredited to Bava and which were actually directed by Freda, but they are enjoyable movies. 'Lust Of The Vampire' (1957) is one of the films that sowed the seeds of the modern gothic horror cycle in the late 1950s, released the same year as Fernando Méndez's Mexican gothic 'The Vampire' (1957) and a year before Terence Fisher's British gothic 'Dracula' (1958), so its place in horror film history is assured.

Bava finally took the reigns with 'Black Sunday' (1960) which is still cited by horror critics today as being the greatest gothic horror movie made in Italy. He went on to dabble in other genres but his skills behind the camera, inventive special effects, atmospheric lighting schemes and extraordinary use of shade and colour made him a perfect fit for science-fiction, fantasy and horror. His work in the "giallo" crime horror subgenre was essential to the development of "giallo" films, with 'The Girl Who Knew Too Much' (1963) often cited as being the first "giallo" film, while 'Blood And Black Lace' (1964) has come to be widely regarded as the textbook, fashion house "giallo" thriller.

TRIVIA : Mario Bava's son Lamberto Bava became a filmmaker.

- - - - -

The career of actor-director Pietro Germi can be crudely divided into two phases. He's fondly remembered globally for the second phase of his filmmaking career when he emerged as one of the leading directors of "commedia all'italiana" movies which were internationally successful. His early films were closer in style to "neorealism" and cemented his reputation as one of Italy's leading crime filmmakers.

- - - - -

Alberto Lattuada was one of the leading directors of "neorealist" cinema in the 1940s. He was equally adept at comedy and drama and he sometimes worked in France and Spain. His father was self-taught composer Felice Lattuada who wrote the music for some of his movies.

Lattuada was a trained architect, a colour-coded sketch artist and a man of literature. He was also a staunch defender of human rights and an advocate for social justice. His anti-fascist writings led to him being harassed and investigated by Italian authorities. He penned articles for the publication 'Corrente di Vita' and he sometimes ran up against the police, like when he arranged a screening of Jean Renoir's controversial picture 'Grand Illusion' (1937) on the eve of Italy’s entry into the 2nd World War.

Lattuada occupies a special place in my heart as the first Italian film I remember buying on video as a boy is one that he co-directed with Federico Fellini, 'Variety Lights' (1950). This movie also introduced me to one of my favourite actresses, Giulietta Masina, who shared a birthday with her fellow pisceans Luis Buñuel, Jonathan Demme and Miou-Miou (three more of my favourite people in cinema).

As a filmmaker, Lattuada defied easy compartmentalisation and categorisation, as this quote from 'The Independent', published at the time of his death, seems to indicate : 'The Italian director Alberto Lattuada was a versatile and accomplished film-maker whose remarkably diverse body of work, stretching over five decades, was a source of exasperation to film critics. Unable to categorise him neatly, they eventually branded him "eclectic" and tried their best to ignore him.'

- - - - -

Mario Monicelli was one of the leading directors of "commedia all'italiana" films and he directed comedian Totò in some of his most successful features. His father, journalist Tomaso Monicelli, was blacklisted for criticising Italy's fascist regime and he committed suicide in 1946. Monicelli served in the Italian Cavalry during the 2nd World War and he managed to survive towards the end of the conflict by hiding out. Like his father, he was an outspoken anti-fascist and he was condemned for his humanitarianism and socialist beliefs.

Monicelli was a close friend and associate of filmmaker Alberto Lattuada and together they co-founded the influential publication 'Camminare' which was noted for its celebration of French cinema. Like his father, he took his own life in 2010, but only after he'd been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

- - - - -

Domenico Paolella helmed genre films in Italy for forty years. He directed a series of popular musical anthologies in the 1950s that were produced by Carlo Infascelli and these movies proved inspirational to the creators of Italy's jukebox musical towards the end of the decade. He then became a leading director of adventure films in the 1960s and established his enduring reputation as a master of the "peplum" fantasy.

I think it's important to note that Paolella was also one of Italy's leading comedy directors and the man behind some of Totò's biggest films. In the 1970s, he once again changed pace and directed two of the key works of Italian convent horror beore finishing his career working in the "poliziotteschi" crime subgenre.

Ferdinando Baldi was one of Italy's more celebrated directors of the 1960s. A master of the historical adventure and the western, critics described him as the most American of Italian genre filmmakers due to his enthusiastic homage to Hollywood genre films and relatively sedate, measured style (for a mid-century Italian). His seminal western 'Texas, Adios' (1966) opens with one of the most famous freeze-frame title sequences in genre cinema history. Baldi and filmmaker Sergio Corbucci were important mentors to cinematographer Enzo Barboni who went on to direct a string of huge hits in the 1970s showcasing the talents of Bud Spencer and Terence Hill (including the original 'Trinity' western duology).

The Beatles were attentive to any developments in the pop scenes in Italy, France, Portugal and Spain, even if John Lennon was typically dismissive of the rock 'n' roll music these countries produced (he famously said French rock was like English wine). Paul McCartney's melodic bass playing and elaborate songwriting proved to be a key influence on the "yé-yé" pop movement that engulfed southern Europe in the mid-1960s. The Beatles were said to be fans of Baldi's "musicarello" picture 'I Don't Protest, I LOve' (1967) starring guitarist, songwriter and record producer Caterina Caselli who was noted at the time for her experimental bass playing. When Ringo Starr acted in Baldi's "spaghetti western", 'Blindman' (1971), he said he was being shot for his sins in "Baldivision". George Harrison called Ferdinando, 'Big Baldi', and was reportedly interested in bringing Baldi to work at his production studio Handmade Films in the 1980s. I'm not sure if an official approach was ever made by Handmade Films, but Baldi chose to stay at home and work in Italy during the final chapter of his career.

Idiosyncratic filmmaker Giulio Petroni drew ire from the Catholic Church throughout his career, causing the institution to decry him for blasphemy and condemn him for radical, socialist intent. His ties to the Italian Communist Party (PCI) stemmed from his days as a journalist, when he was hounded by the authorities for being an outspoken anti-fascist.

Petroni directed newsreels and political documentaries early in his career and he had many books published across the decades. He became one of the key directors of philosophical "spaghetti westerns" in the 1960s. He directed some startling religious satires in the 1970s.

Jean-Pierre Melville is considered one of French cinema's great crime directors. His parents, Berthe and Jules Grumbach, were part of the Jewish community in Paris originating from Alsace in eastern France. His professional name was taken in honour of one of his favourite authors, American novelist Herman Melville. He fought with the French Resistance movement during the 2nd World War and opened his own independent film studio following the conflict. Melville's spare, minimalistic crime thrillers have influenced countless film directors.

Hilary Hahn demonstrates complex phrasing technique in 'Reflective', Partita No. 5' by Antón García Abril

Painter and sculptor Amando De Ossorio was one of the pioneers of modern Spanish gothic horror cinema. Having worked as a hired hand in the Spanish film industry for over a decade, he got off to an inauspicious start in horror with the strained gothic chiller 'Malenka' (1969). As De Ossorio later revealed in interviews, this picture was mutilated beyond recognition by the film's producers and released in a near-unintelligible cut to movie theatres.

Undeterred, De Ossorio finally hit his stride in the 1970s when he directed a series of landmark horror productions, including all four entries in the 'Blind Dead' zombie tetralogy through which De Ossorio created his own cinematic mythos centred around reanimated Knights Templar. All of De Ossorio's horror films drew inspiration from history, mythology, art and old literature, with romanticist poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer's 'Mount Of Souls' (1862, El monte de las ánimas) providing ideas behind the 'Blind Dead' mythos. The 'Blind Dead' movies were scored by classical composer Antón García Abril who also wrote music for Ferdinando Baldi's aforementioned western 'Texas, Adios' (1966) which was an Italian-Spanish co-production.

Antonio Pietrangeli was a contributor to film journals like 'Bianco e Nero' and 'Cinema' in the 1940s which allowed him the opportunity to become a screenwriter. He went on to direct seriocomic dramas, slice-of-life community portraits and whimsical fantasies in the 1950s and 1960s. He was one of the instigators of the "neorealism" offshoot, "neorealismo rosa".

Federico Fellini is my favourite Italian filmmaker from "the Golden Age of Cinema". He started out as a gag writer for radio, theatre and cinema. He met his creative muse, comedienne Giulietta Masina, in a studio office at Italian public radio broadcaster EIAR in 1942. The two of them barely managed to survive the 2nd World War, but survive it they did.

Fellini's training ground to be a filmmaker was the crumbling architecture of post-war Italy. He co-scripted "neorealist" movies in the late 1940s before securing the opportunity to co-direct 'Variety Lights' (1950) with filmmaker Alberto Lattuada. Though the film turned out to be a massive failure at the box-office, Fellini's involvement was significant due to it being a backstage comedy set within the world of travelling performers. Among the cast were Bolognese clown Masina and Neapolitan dancer Carla Del Poggio who was Lattuada's creative muse.

Fellini's colourful films reflected his intense passion for circuses, carnivals, comic strips, cartoons and Catholicism. He created fantastical sequences and surreal episodes yet always anchored them in something resembling reality, though the balance he struck was arguably the reverse of that struck by Spanish surrealist Luis Buñuel. In this regard, I think Fellini's roots in the "neorealist" movement helped him to always keep one foot on the ground.

Fellini's audio-visual explorations of dream and memory were those of a deep nostalgist. He fully succumbed to this sentiment by directing the funereal lament 'And the Ship Sails On' (1983) which doffed its cap to Joan Littlewood's staging of the musical 'Oh, What A Lovely War!' in the 1960s. He followed this with three more movies drenched in affection for the past.

The work of Federico Fellini continues to divide opinion but what's certain is that he was one of the most influential filmmakers of the 20th century. I don't think it's overstating it to say fantasy filmmakers like Terry Gilliam, David Lynch and Tim Burton owe a massive stylistic debt to the cinematic worlds fashioned by Fellini. American film director Spike Lee once said of Fellini's filmmaking, “It really just for me emphasized . . . what you could do. There are no boundaries. There are no limits.”

Seasoned filmmaker Eric Rohmer always seemed to me like he was born an old man. He may have been the oldest French filmmaker associated with the film movement known as "La Nouvelle Vague", or French New Wave, which was arguably the oldest of the global new wave film movements (European movements in Poland, Hungary, Czechia and Slovakia can also be dated back to the mid-to-late 1950s).

A devout Catholic who voiced strong opinions through his writing, Rohmer was unerringly cordial and polite in person. He worked as a teacher and journalist before entering film and had his first novel 'Elisabeth' (1946) published shortly after the 2nd World War (his birth name was Jean-Marie Maurice Schérer, his filmmaking identity was Éric Rohmer and his pen name was Gilbert Cordier). He also submitted articles to various arts publications including 'Révue du Cinéma', 'Arts', 'Temps Modernes', 'La Parisienne' and 'Cahiers du Cinéma'.

Rohmer directed numerous short subject films and documentaries early in his career. He directed his first feature film in 1959 and embarked upon creating the first of several film series in the early 1960s, when he introduced the first two installments of the 'Moral Tales' sextet in 1963. Later film cycles include 'Comedies And Proverbs' (six films) and 'Tales Of The Four Seasons' (four films). Rohmer also worked extensively in television and made occasional forays into live theatre.

Looked at today, Rohmer's film work occupies a special place within cinema. His movies have a kind of timeless quality to them, perhaps enhanced by his reluctance to embrace traditional scoring methods, musical soundtracking or non-diegetic sound. Instead, he directed movies about people and how they interact with nature and their environment. Time has told me that's something that never goes out of style.

Novelist Michel Audiard was one of the French film industry's great scriptwriters. He became a go-to guy for the studios whenever they were looking for a dialogue writer and he contributed to countless movie scripts as a credited and uncredited writer. A dedicated humourist, his offbeat timing and irreverent sensibility made him a unique figure within French popular culture. He directed eight feature-length films that included a handful of inimitable farces.

TRIVIA : Michel Audiard's son Jacques Audiard became a filmmaker.

Comedian Yves Robert was a successful actor of stage and screen who turned to writing and directing. He earned his spurs directing comedian Louis de Funès in a pair of unabashedly commercial features made in the 1950s. He then formed the production company La Guéville in 1961 with actress Danièle Delorme and this allowed him to work on the distribution of his own pictures. It was under the umbrella of La Guéville that Robert launched the career of comedian Pierre Richard, a frequent collaborator who became one of Europe's biggest comic superstars.

Fans of "spaghetti westerns" might be aware of the films of Sergio Bergonzelli, Sergio Corbucci, Sergio Leone and Sergio Sollima, or "the four Sergios" as they are affectionately referred to by fans. These three men named Sergio transformed the fortunes of the "spaghetti western" in the 1960s, drawing praise from film critics while helping to establish its post-modern conventions.

Sergio Sollima fought with the Italian Resistance movement in World War 2. He cut his dramatic teeth writing screenplays for "peplum" movies in the 1960s. He specialised in making adventure films throughout his career. His more pensive work in the western genre is interesting and includes the 'Cuchillo' gunfighter series.

Novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet was an agricultural engineer by trade, a graduate of the Institut National Agronomique in Paris, which is now known as the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon (INA P-G). He became associated with the "Left Bank" film movement in the late 1950s. He wrote the screenplay for Alain Resnais' mystery 'Last Year At Marienbad' (1961) and then started directing his own films.

Robbe-Grillet's movies were experimental in nature and did very little business at the box-office. For his movie 'N Rolled The Dice' (1971), he used alternate takes and excess footage from his previous film 'Eden And After' (1970) to create a remix version which was an interesting concept in 1971, a bit like Gus Van Sant's attempted shot-for-shot remake 'Psycho' (1998).

Comedian and songwriter Luciano Salce worked with many fine comic actors during his career in film and theatre, including Totò. As a performer, he appeared in zany character roles in comedies directed by Luigi Zampa, Mario Mattoli and Steno, which provided a suitable training ground for an aspirational young movie director. He shot his first motion picture in 1953 and became a prolific comic filmmaker in the 1960s.

Salce commissioned the first music score by a young composer named Ennio Morricone who wrote the music for 'The Fascist' (1961). They were great friends who often worked together.

Musician and filmmaker Claude Sautet studied painting and sculpture in his youth. It could be argued he was the pre-eminent chronicler of the folly and foibles of the "bourgeoisie" because he approached his subjects seriously and respectfully. His preference for sedate pacing and penchant for elegant visual compositions brought a sense of meditation to his work. In a directorial career that lasted for forty-six years, he directed fifteen feature-length films which seems somehow reflective of the level of quietude and patience he brought to filmmaking.

Independent filmmaker Sergio Bergonzelli was one of the leading directors of "spaghetti westerns". His low budget entries in the western cycle offered a raw alternative to those being shot in Italy at the peak of the subgenre's popularity and his work opened the door for other small-scale genre productions to compete on the open market. When Bergonzelli moved on to explore other genres, medium Demofilo Fidani stepped forward to make cut-price "spaghettis", earning himself the nickname "the Italian Ed Wood" from critics for his efforts. Both directors populated their movies with oddballs, whackjobs and eccentrics.

Genre filmmaker Eugenio Martín was one of the leading exponents of the "paella western". Though "paella" westerns are sometimes referred to by critics as being an offshoot of the "spaghetti western", this isn't really the case. The godfather of the "paella western" was Spanish filmmaker Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent who co-directed the western 'The Coyote' (1955) with Fernando Soler and directed the follow-up 'The Coyote's Justice' (1956) by himself. These successful pictures were Spanish-Mexican co-productions that planted the seeds for "paella westerns" and "chorizo westerns" to come. It's also worth remembering that a lot of "spaghetti westerns" were Italian-Spanish co-productions and these were frequently shot in Almeria in Andalusia, Spain. French genre filmmakers also shot movies in Almeria.