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The History of French Cinema: 1966

22/3 -

Jean-Luc Godard's Masculin-féminin is released. The film stars Jean-Pierre Léaud, Chantal Goya, and Marléne Jobert in her debut performance. [ADD]

5/4 -

The Film Authors Federation, the French Film Critics Association and the Writers Union for Truth protest against the banning of Jacques Rivette's latest film, La Religieuse (The Nun). [ADD]

9/4 -

Sophia Loren marries film producer Carlo Ponti for the second time in the town of Sèvres. Loren has taken French nationality so that Ponti cannot be prosecuted for bigamy in Italy, where he is still considered to be married to his first wife because divorce is not recognised. [ADD]

15/4 -

Fifteen days after Yvon Bourges, the Secretary of State for Information banned Jacques Rivette's La Religieuse (The Nun), André Malraux, the Minister of Culture, announces that he will not oppose the showing of the film at the Cannes Festival in May. Anna Karina stars as a nun who suffers lesbian attentions and rape by a priest in the 18^th century. [ADD]

20/5 -

The German film Der Junge Törless (Young Torless), receives its world premiere. Written and directed by Volker Schlöndorf, the film stars Mathieu Carriére. [ADD]

27/5 -

Claude Lelouch's film Un homme et une femme (A Man and a Woman), wins the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. [ADD]

31/5 -

Jacques Demy begins filming the musical comedy Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (The Young Girls of Rochefort) on location in Rochefort-sur-Mer. Sisters Françoise Dorléac and Catherine Deneuve star. [ADD]

16/9 -

François Truffaut’s adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s science-fiction novel, Fahrenheit 451, is released. In a dystopian future in which books are banned, Oskar Werner plays a fireman who begins to doubt his job. [ADD]

Sep -

Gillo Pontecorvo’s La Battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers) is banned in France despite winning the Golden Lion at this year’s Venice Film Festival. [ADD]

8/10 -

Channel One screens ORTF's production La Prise du pouvoir par Louis XIV (The Rise of Louis XIV). Directed by Roberto Rossellini, the film will also be distributed through cinemas. [ADD]

18/10 -

Jean-Luc Godard declares, ‘Until I am paid on a par with Clouzot, Fellini and Clément, I cannot consider myself to be a success.’ [ADD]

26/10 -

René Clément's star-studded Paris brûle-t-il? (Is Paris Burning?) is released. The international cast includes Leslie Caron, Orson Welles, Gert Fröbe, Alain Delon, Kirk Douglas, Glenn Ford, Anthony Perkins, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Simone Signoret. [ADD]

5/11 -

François Truffaut's biography of Alfred Hitchcock, Le Cinéma selon Hitchcock, is published. [ADD]

Other Key French Films of 1966

Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson) [ADD]

Le Deuxième soufflé (Second Breath) (Jean-Pierre Melville) [ADD]

La Guerre est finie (Alain Resnais) [ADD]

La Longue Marche (Alexandre Astruc) [ADD]

Made in U.S.A. (Jean-Luc Godard) [ADD]

Le Père Noël a les yeux bleus (Santa Claus has Blue Eyes) (Jean Eustache) [ADD]

The History of Cinema: 1966