France has maintained a world-class cinema industry ever since the Lumiere brothers showed their first films in 1896, and it has produced brilliant films in all genres; swashbuckling adventures, side-splitting comedies, and moving drama.
Over the years French directors such as Renoir, Cocteau, Truffaut, Godard, Clouzot, Chabrol, Resnais, Rene Clair and Louis Malle, have created some of the most memorable films of all time. Today their successors keep France at the forefront of serious cinema. By resisting “Hollywoodisation” the industry has preserved a distinct French way of film making, helped by the condition that every cinema in France is obliged to show at least 25% French films.
The Cannes Film Festival is still arguably the most prestigious event in the world cinematic calendar. For the many British cinema goers outside of London who love French cinema it is not easy to keep up with recent French films or to see many French films in cinema conditions at all. The Malvern French Film Centre hopes to remedy this for film-goers in the West Midlands by providing regular screenings from the cannon of French Cinema.