Directed by Florence Strauss • Documentary • 2020 • 56 minutes
Episode 3: The Audacious Ones
It takes nerve to forge ahead with a film when you’re broke, but it’s the kind of nerve that led to the production of some of the most successful mid-century French films.
This episode argues that the New Wave was partly driven by producers who saw hand-held cameras and cheaper lighting as ways to save money. Breathless was a collaboration between a producer and director who were both dangerously close to bankruptcy. Looming bankruptcy also featured in the making of The Sucker, which went 200 million francs over budget and saw producer Robert Dorfmann literally gambling with the salaries of crew members to try and win enough to cover his overdrafts. Meanwhile, Raoul Levy made a gamble of a different kind: threatening to tear up his contract with Columbia unless the studio distributed And God created Woman in the US. The gamble paid off, and the film turned Brigitte Bardot into a household name overnight.
Films spotlighted in this episode:
Breathless (1960) / Georges de Beauregard / dir. Jean-Luc Godard
And God Created Woman (1956) / Raoul Levy / dir. by Roger Vadim
The Sucker (1965) / Robert Dorfmann / dir. Gérard Oury
Directed by Florence Strauss • Documentary • 2020 • 56 minutes
Episode 4: The American Way
“The American Way” refers to studio production, in which producers don’t need to constantly search for financing—and directors don’t necessarily get the final cut, as enshrined in French law.
By the 1960...
Directed by Florence Strauss • Documentary • 2020 • 56 minutes
Episode 5: The Lovers
This episode focuses on producers driven by a true passion for film. Mag Bodard was a trailblazer—a woman producing films during an almost completely male-dominated era. In addition to the usual challenges of f...
Directed by Florence Strauss • Documentary • 2020 • 56 minutes
Episode 7 - Censorship
In France, as elsewhere, the 1970s were an era that expanded the bounds of the permissible in film. There was an “anything goes” attitude — at least, anything that could make it past the censors.
Emmanuelle w...
