frfilmtv1-4, Exercise 3: The cinema of quality and Truffaut

Model answer:

The cinéma de qualité was the dominant style of the 1940s and 1950s: polished studio films, often literary adaptations, with well-constructed scripts, fine sets and established stars (directors such as Claude Autant-Lara, Jean Delannoy and René Clément, screenwriters such as Aurenche and Bost).

In 1954 François Truffaut published an article in Cahiers du cinéma, "A certain tendency of French cinema", attacking it as literary, stuffy and controlled by scriptwriters, and calling for directors to be the real authors of their films. It is the starting point for the New Wave and the idea of the auteur.

Reason for care: it was a young critic's polemic, written to make a point, and it overlooked a lot; many of the films he disliked are still admired.