Best French directors after 1968

Maurice Pialat made his first film in 1968 and is now considered the director who has the strongest and most consistent influence on young French filmmakers not Jean-Luc Godard. The New Yorker‘s Richard Brody argues that Pialat “is one of the greatest, most influential, and most misunderstood modern directors"

Pialat as director crafted 10 features he won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1987 for Sous le soleil de Satan the first French film to win since 1966.

Pialat was an uncompromising auteur with a distinctive style & tone who created works that are raw, corrosive and tender in equal measures of emotion. He made impolite movies about insoluble dilemmas and impossible personalities, women and men who can’t or won’t allow themselves to be tamed, and the tug-of-war between desire and responsibility.

Pialat... "What I understand by realism goes beyond reality … The cinema transforms what is sordid into something marvellous, it makes the ordinary exceptional"
on Goddard...better known for what he said than what he did
on Malle...a straight-up incompetent
on Truffaut...so ordinary
on Jacques Rivette... a monumentally self-important blowhard

I like Pialat`s films a lot and unlike most of the New Wave directors he seems more interested in actors and performance rather than style.He obviously dislikes most of them although his debut feature L`Enfance nue has often been compared to Les 400 coups.

L`Enfance nue has often been compared to Les 400 coups.
and it's ,IMHO, much superior to Truffaut's effort;its hero really got a raw deal whereas
Antoine Doinel's mom had her "baccalaureat,which was rare in the those years ;proof positive :Truffaut had not taken it!

I wish I could be like Gladstone Gander.

on Goddard...better known for what he said than what he did
on Truffaut...so ordinary
on Jacques Rivette... a monumentally self-important blowhard

how well you put it!there's a strong backlash against the new wavelet in france now!I've been defending the "old school" for fourteen years now!
Louis Malle has several interesting movies though


as for the ones who came after the nouvelle vague:
Bertrand tavernier (le juge et l'assassin,un dimanche à la campagne,la vie et rien d'autre,ça commence aujourd'hui.....)
Claude Miller (la meilleure façon de marcher,la classe de neige)
Philippe Lioret (je vis bien ne t'en fais pas,welcome,toutes nos envies)
François Ozon (mainly his first efforts,sitcom,gouttes d'eau sur pierre brulante,les amants criminels,8 femmes, swimming pool)
Jean Claude Brisseau (un jeu brutal,de bruit et de fureur,les savates du bon dieu)

plus classiques mais souvent tres interessants
Pierre Granier-Deferre(le chat,le train,une étrange affaire)
Claude Sautet (les choses de la vie,Max et les ferrailleurs)
Yves Boisset (RAS,Dupont-Lajoie)
Jean -JACQUES Annaud (before he got eaten by hollywood : la victoire en chantant/noirs et blancs en couleurs,l'ours)
Nicole Garcia (un week end sur deux, l'adversaire)

I wish I could be like Gladstone Gander.

Yes,Tavernier and Sautet are unquestionably great.They both had a plain,classical style,no New Wave tricks,just a solid emphasis on strong plots and characters.
Ozon did have a promising start but has become rather repetitive and predictable.
One might mention Jean Eustache,a slight filmography because of his early death but La Maman et la Putain can`t be ignored and Mes petites amoureuses has its admirers.

There is an emphasis on New Wave rather than old school on these boards but I think that`s beginning to change now as more films by directors such as Duvivier,Grémillon and Guitry are being released in box sets.

There is an emphasis on New Wave rather than old school on these boards but I think that`s beginning to change now as more films by directors such as Duvivier,Grémillon and Guitry are being released in box sets.
it's about time!I've been writing for 14 years that other directors made more interesting things earlier.

I'm amazed you like Eustache;I consider his "maman et putain" a bore to end all bores and the principal (Léaud) the worst would be intellectual French actor.Eustache is pure NW style.
Claude Chabrol is my favorite NW director ,mainly in his 1968-1973 period :his influences ,apart from Hitchcock, are to be found in the great Clouzot and Duvivier cinema .if the NW hated these two great men they were admired by Hitchcock (Clouzot) and by Welles and Bergman (Duvivier)

Ozon did have a promising start but has become rather repetitive and predictable.
I second that!
I wish I could be like Gladstone Gander.