Festivals - FCAD 2024 : Deauville American Film Festival Celebrates 50 Films that Changed Perceptions

By Mulder, 09 july 2024

The Deauville American Film Festival, an annual celebration of American cinema held since 1975, is marking a special milestone this year. In honor of its 50th anniversary, the festival has curated a list of 50 American films that have significantly influenced our views of the world. These films, ranging from early cinematic masterpieces to contemporary classics, are celebrated for their innovative techniques, powerful storytelling, and profound impact on society.

The selection includes iconic titles such as D. W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916), Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941), Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019). Each film in this list has been chosen subjectively, acknowledging their contributions to shaping the seventh art through their creativity, audacity, and the diverse ideas they have projected.

To commemorate this occasion, the Deauville Festival is expanding its collaboration with Cinema Morny, providing a second screening venue dedicated exclusively to this retrospective. This new space will feature presentations by talents and industry professionals, offering a broad panorama of American cinema that reflects our past, accompanies our present, and predicts our future.

Among the highlighted films are:

1916: Intolerance by D. W. Griffith
1927: Sunrise by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
1932: Freaks by Tod Browning
1939: Gone with the Wind by Victor Fleming
1940: The Great Dictator by Charlie Chaplin
1941: Citizen Kane by Orson Welles
1942: Casablanca by Michael Curtiz
1942: To Be or Not to Be by Ernst Lubitsch
1946: It's a Wonderful Life by Frank Capra
1950: Outrage by Ida Lupino
1950: All About Eve by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
1955: The Night of the Hunter by Charles Laughton
1956: The Searchers by John Ford
1959: Anatomy of a Murder by Otto Preminger
1959: Rio Bravo by Howard Hawks
1959: Imitation of Life by Douglas Sirk
1959: Some Like It Hot by Billy Wilder
1960: Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock
1961: West Side Story by Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins
1967: Bonnie and Clyde by Arthur Penn
1968: 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
1969: Easy Rider by Dennis Hopper
1969: The Wild Bunch by Sam Peckinpah
1970: Wanda by Barbara Loden
1972: The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola
1972: Cabaret by Bob Fosse
1973: The Exorcist by William Friedkin
1974: A Woman Under the Influence by John Cassavetes
1975: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Milos Forman
1976: Network by Sidney Lumet
1976: Carrie by Brian De Palma
1976: Taxi Driver by Martin Scorsese
1977: Star Wars by George Lucas
1978: The Deer Hunter by Michael Cimino
1982: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial by Steven Spielberg
1982: First Blood by Ted Kotcheff
1984: The Terminator by James Cameron
1989: Do the Right Thing by Spike Lee
1990: Edward Scissorhands by Tim Burton
1992: Unforgiven by Clint Eastwood
1997: Boogie Nights by Paul Thomas Anderson
1999: The Matrix by the Wachowskis
1999: The Virgin Suicides by Sofia Coppola
2001: Mulholland Drive by David Lynch
2003: Elephant by Gus Van Sant
2007: Zodiac by David Fincher
2010: Inception by Christopher Nolan
2012: Zero Dark Thirty by Kathryn Bigelow
2015: Spotlight by Tom McCarthy
2019: Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino

The festival's history dates back to its establishment by Lionel Chouchan, André Halimi, and then-Mayor of Deauville Michel d'Ornano, with support from Groupe Lucien Barrière. Originally non-competitive, the festival began awarding prizes for feature films in 1995 and short films in 1998, evolving into a prestigious event in the cinematic calendar.

This year's celebration not only honors the legacy of these transformative films but also reaffirms Deauville's commitment to highlighting the enduring power of cinema to challenge, inspire, and change perspectives. The retrospective is expected to attract cinephiles and industry professionals alike, all eager to revisit these groundbreaking works in a unique and luxurious setting.

For more information on the festival and the complete list of films, visit the official Deauville American Film Festival website.

(Source : press release)