Drama
French (Le Feu follet)
1963 · Directed by Louis Malle · 108 min
Alain Leroy, a man in his thirties, leaves a clinic where he has been treated for alcoholism and spends a short stretch of time in Paris, calling on old friends, lovers and acquaintances. Shot in black and white and scored with Erik Satie's piano music, it is a quiet, intimate character study.
Why it matters in cinema history
A key work of early-1960s French art cinema, it shows a more interior, literary strand beside the energy of the New Wave, and it is central to Malle's reputation as a filmmaker who refused to repeat himself.
Watch with intention
Watch it as a study of one man seen entirely through how other people react to him.
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