Year

Country

Home

People

Films

Articles

Store

The History of French Cinema: 1976

2/1 -

Françoise Giroud, the secretary of state for culture and communication, returns from Hollywood after decorating 81-year-old Jean Renoir with the Legion of Honour.   Giroud worked as a continuity girl for Renoir on La Grande Illusion in the 30s. [ADD]

7/1 -

Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Mamma Roma (1962) is re-released in France following his death in 1974. [ADD]

8/1 -

Jean-Charles Tacchella's second picture, Cousin, Cousine, is awarded the Louis Delluc Prize. [ADD]

3/3 -

Claude Miller’s first full-length film, La Meilleure façon de marcher (The Best Way to Walk), is released.  Miller was previously an assistant to Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. [ADD]

10/3 -

Serge Gainsbourg’s film Je t'aime moi non plus (I Love You, I Don't) is released.   With the same title as his 1969 hit single, it stars his co-singer Jane Birkin as a barmaid who falls for a homosexual truck driver in the middle of the desert. [ADD]

17/3 -

François Truffaut's L'Argent de poche (Small Change), starring Virginie Thévenet, and Jean-François Stévenin is released.   Truffaut’s two teenage daughters, Eva and Laura, also appear in the picture. [ADD]

3/4 - 

The first César awards take place.   First prize goes to Robert Enrico’s Le vieux fusil (The Old Rifle). [ADD]

26/5 -

Roman Polanski's The Tenant is released.   Polanski himself takes the title role in a Kafkaesque drama which sees his character believing himself to be guilty of crime he hasn’t committed.   Melvyn Douglas, Shelley Winters, Jo Van Fleet and Lila Kedrova also appear. [ADD]

28/5 -

Martin Scorsese’s drama of urban isolation and paranoia, Taxi Driver, wins the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, despite the Festival’s president, playwright Tennessee Williams, criticising its violence. [ADD]

16/7 -

During the Channel 2 program ‘Ciné-Club,’ Claude-Jean Philippe presents the 1934 film Le Roi des Champs-Elysée.   It is the only film made in France by Buster Keaton. [ADD]

30/7 -

Simone Signoret’s autobiography La Nostalgie n'est plus ce qu'elle était (Nostalgia Is Not What It Used To Be) is published. [ADD]

14/11 -

Veteran film actor Jean Gabin dies of a heart attack at the age of 72.   Five days later, after a cremation at the Pére Lechaise cemetery, the former naval man’s ashes are scattered into the Irish Sea. [ADD]

1/12 -

Swiss director Alain Tanner's film, Jonas qui aura 25 ans en l'an 2000 (Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000) is released. [ADD]

27/12 -

In a survey on film censorship carried out by L’Express 65% of people questioned agree that some type of control is needed. [ADD]

Other Key French Films of 1976

Black and White in Colour (Jean-Jacques Annaud) [ADD]

The Memory of Justice (Marcel Ophuls) [ADD]

Moi, Pierre Riviere (Rene Allio) [ADD]