French Cinema

Published: March 23, 2017, 5:42 p.m.

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In a live edition from the Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead, Matthew Sweet is joined by Guy Austin, Founding Director of the Research Centre in Film and Digital Media at Newcastle University, for a jaunt through the history of music for French cinema.

France was one of the first nations to recognise the possibilities of cinema and through the pioneering work of figures such as Auguste and Louis Lumi\\xe8re and Georges M\\xe9li\\xe8s, it quickly established the foundations for a new form of art and entertainment.

Matthew and Guy begin at the beginning, on a whistle-stop tour of the story of French Film, to the present, taking in scores for films such as L'Atalante; Les Enfants du Paradis; French Cancan; The Red Balloon; Rififi; Les Quatre cents coups; \\xc0 bout de souffle; Hiroshima mon amour; Betty Blue; Jean de Florette; The City of Lost Children and Intouchables.

The Classic Score of the Week is Michel Legrand's music for Les Parapluies de Cherbourg.

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