Rediscover the Cinema of Claude Sautet

Claude Sautet (February 23, 1924 - July 22, 2000), who began his filmmaking career in the early 1950s assisting such directors as Georges Franju and Jacques Becker, first tasted success with the crime thriller Classe Tous Risques (1960), but was unfairly overlooked as the New Wave directors dominated French cinema.

After spending much of the 1960s as a screenwriter, Sautet re-emerged as a director to watch. His collaborations with Austrian-born Romy Schneider, leading men Michel Piccoli and Yves Montand, screenwriter Jean-Loup Dabadie, and cinematographer Jean Boffety yielded romantic yet haunting films that embodied the privileges and struggles of the French bourgeoisie following the political upheavals of the 1960s.