Les Parapluies de Cherbourg

Wave directors turned out a steady stream of middle-brow films: the sentimental melodrama of Claude Lelouch (b. 1937: Un homme et une femme, 1967) for example, or Malle’s Le Voleur (1966) or the sugary musicals of Jacques Demy (1931–90: Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, 1964; Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, 1967). On the other hand, two names transcend their times: Robert Bresson (1901–99), the major French exponent of religious and spiritual themes, and Luis Buñuel (1900–83), scourge of the bourgeoisie. Yet