Love Exists
Early Short Films of the French New Wave
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19m
Directed by Maurice Pialat • Documentary • 1961 • 19 minutes
Maurice Pialat may have grown up in the suburbs, but he has little love for them. In this poetic but critical essay, he turns his gaze to a range of post-war Paris suburbs: From the bourgeois plots of land where the “little” aesthetic dominates (“little house,” “little garden,” “nice little quiet life”), to massive new apartment blocks, and even shantytowns. And the film is prescient in drawing attention to class segregation and disparity of opportunity between those who live in Paris and in the towns that ring the metropolis.
Music by Georges Delerue.
Up Next in Early Short Films of the French New Wave
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Janine
Directed by Maurice Pialat • Drama • 2023 • 17 minutes
During a desultory night on the town—playing pool, buying the paper, eating fries—two men talk about their experiences with women. One of them (Hubert Deschamps) disparages his ex-wife, “the queen of whores,” who he admits to beating with hi...
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500 Francs
Directed by Melvin Van Peebles • Drama • 1961 • 12 minutes
Set to a percussive, syncopated soundtrack, this early Melvin Van Peebles short is a small-scale tale of obsession, greed and violence. In a run-down neighborhood, a boy notices a 500-franc note in a sewer. His improvised efforts to pull...
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Paris, a Winter's Day
Directed by Guy Gilles • Documentary • 1962 • 10 minutes
This is a love letter to living in Paris — even on a bitterly cold winter’s day. Interspersed with shots of the city, we hear from Parisians, including a group of boys on the joys of pelting passers-by with snowballs, and a 73-year-old who...
