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The History of French Cinema: 1984

27/1 -

Maurice Pialat's À nos amours (To Our Loves), his first film since Loulou (1980) wins this year’s Louis Delluc Prize.   16-year-old Sandrine Bonnaire stars. [ADD]

23/2 -

Volker Schlöndorff’s Un amour de Swann (Swann in Love), starring Jeremy Irons, Ornella Muti and Alain Delon, is released. [ADD]

14/3 -

Italian director Francesco Rosi’s version of Bizet’s Carmen is released.   Filmed on location in Andalusia, the film stars Julia Migenes-Johnson, Placido Domingo and Ruggero Raimondi.   The orchestra is conducted by Loren Maazel. [ADD]

24/3 -

Michael Eisner, the president of Walt Disney Productions, signs a contract with prime minister, Laurent Fabius for a European Disneyland to be constructed in Marne-la-Vallée, just outside Paris.   It is anticipated that the park will be open early in 1990. [ADD]

15/5 -

At the Cannes Film Festival Richard Attenborough launches the $4.5 million "A British Film Year" project designed to encourage cinema attendance at home and increase overseas awareness of British talent through major exhibitions of British films worldwide. [ADD]

17/5 -

A National Centre for Cinema publication reports that attendance for 1983 was down 5.4% from 1982, but that there was an increase in the number of French productions. [ADD]

20/5 -

At a meeting in the Eden-Roc Hotel, Antibes, the Minister for Culture Jack Lang and Jack Valenti, the president of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) agree on measures to protect French production from American competition, the need to combat video piracy, and the promotion of cinema showings of films ahead of any subsequent TV or video release. [ADD]

25/5 -

Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas, starring Harry Dean Stanton and Nastassja Kinski, wins the Golden Palm at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.  The jury’s Special Prize is awarded to Hungarian director Márta Mészáros’ Napló gyermekeimnek (Diary for My Children). [ADD]

12/8 -

Fritz Lang’s silent German masterpiece Metropolis is screened in a colourised version with a soundtrack added by pop musician Giorgio Moroder. [ADD]

12/9 -

The Association for Film History Research – which will launch the journal 1895 – is established. [ADD]

14/9 -

The funeral of exiled Turkish director Yilmaz Güney takes place at Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.   Güney, who was 47, died of stomach cancer on 9^th September. [ADD]

21/10 -

The 52-year-old director François Truffaut dies from a brain tumour.   In August of 1983 he suffered a cerebral haemorrhage while working on La Petite voleuse and, after an operation, was unable to work. [ADD]

24/10 -

François Truffaut’s funeral takes place at the Montmartre cemetery after his cremation. [ADD]

25/10 -

25-year-old actress Pascale Ogier, the daughter of actress Bulle Ogier dies prematurely of a heart attack one day before her 26^th birthday. [ADD]

4/11 -

Canal Plus, the nation’s first Pay-TV channel begins broadcasting to over 200,000 subscribers. [ADD]

14/12 -

It is announced that Pierre Viot, the former head of CNC, will take over from Robert Favre Le Bret as the president of the Cannes film Festival. [ADD]

Other Key French Films of 1984

L’Amour a mort (Alan Resnais) [ADD]

L’Amour par terre (Jacques Rivette) [ADD]

Un dimanche a la campagne (Bertrand Tavernier) [ADD]

Les Favoris de la lune (Otar Iosseliani) [ADD]

Port Saganne (Alain Corneau) [ADD]

Improper Conduct (Nestor Almendros, Orlando Jimenez Leal) [ADD]

Les Nuits de la pleine lune (Eric Rohmer) [ADD]

Tartuffe (Gerard Depardieu) [ADD]