The Cinematic tradition in France is a long one, starting with the Lumière brothers of Lyon who pioneered the art of moving pictures at the turn of the 20th century. The medium burst into full flower during the 1920s and 1930s through the efforts of such avant-garde directors as René Clair and Jean Renoir.
During the 1950s and 1960s came a genre called the Nouvelle Vague with a new generation of filmmakers among them Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard, Louis Malle, Alain Resnais, Jacques Rivette, Eric Rohmer, François Truffaut, and Roger Vadim. Often working with small budgets and realistic themes, the New Wave produced such classics as Godard's A Bout de Souffle, Truffaut's Les Quatre Cents Coups, and Vadim's Et Dieu Créa la Femme.
In more recent years, French cinema has brought such internationally acclaimed films as Claude Berri's Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources, both based on classic stories by Marcel Pagnol. A steady stream of popular romantic comedies ranges from Colline Serreau's Trois Hommes et Un Couffin in 1985 to Jean-Pierre Jeunet's La Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain in 2001.
France's notable contributions to the world of literature date back to the 11th century with the Chanson de Roland, an epic poem recounting the heroic death of Roland, a nephew of Charlemagne. In the 17th century came great classical playwrights such as Jean-Baptists Poquelin, known as Molière and Jean Racine. Philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire dominated the literature of the 18th century, forming the basis for an era of new thought called the Enlightenment. Many of the great novelists of French literature flourished in the 19th century and include Honoré de Balzac, Charles Baudelaire, Alexandre Dumas, Gustave Flaubert, Victor Hugo, Guy de Maupassant, George Sand, Emile Zola, and many others.
In the early 20th century, Marcel Proust published his autobiographical novel A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, while Colette penned her novels of Paris life. Jacques Prévert became known for his radical but humorous political poems and song lyrics. As the century progressed, popular authors such as Marcel Magnol, known for his novels set in Provence, and detective novelist Georges Simenon also left their mark. In the post-World War II era intellectual writers such as Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, and Jean-Paul Sartre published groundbreaking works reflecting a philosophy known as existentialism. In more recent years, the French literary scene has spawned the historical novels of Jean Auel and Marguerite Yourcenar.
