The dominant mode of narrative today is still largely “Classical Hollywood Cinema," which is the assumption that the action will spring primarily from individual characters as causal agents (narrative centers on personal psychological causes like decisions, choices, and traits).
French film was largely influenced by this, as seen when people like Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, Rohmer, and Rivette came of age as filmmakers and they saw no contradiction in rejecting the French filmmaking establishment while loving commercial Hollywood. Godard even said, “It was cinema that made us – or me, at least – want to make films. I knew nothing of life except through the cinema.” So, I would say that French film was heavily influenced by American film in that they loved the idea of Hollywood cinema and filmmaking, and then took that into their own world of youthful vigor and postwar reconstruction to create a more "casual" look suited to the culture. They were just a bunch of young kids with a pure love of cinema.
Common features of this French New Wave style were a lot of camera movements, tracking and panning to follow character or trace our relations within a locale, causal connections became quite loose and often lacked goal-oriented protagonists, startling shifts in tone to jolt expectations, discontinuous editing disturbs narrative continuity, and ambiguous endings. And, all of these have influenced American filmmakers in years since.881 Views · View UpvotersRelated QuestionsMore Answers BelowDo the French and Americans dislike each-other?Why do Americans hate communism?What is the reputation of modern French cinema?Do the French tend to dislike Americans?How much has French influence on world cinema and art declined since World War Two?Ask New QuestionJoe Belkin, An opinionated American.Answered Mar 5 2015 · Author has 2.8k answers and 1.2m answer viewsIn the beginning, the American film industry was essentially an extension of filmed vaudeville ... While the French saw it as a new art form - maybe a combination of art & a play ... America then started the idea of a blockbuster ( film can be a giant canvas to paint a story and scaled like Americas aspirations -huge and long form) ... Of course ww1 and later ww2 interrupted France's film industry ... And along with other European film makers, many left to go to America ... With some more gritty storytelling experiences that became film noir in the US that was exported back to Europe in the 1960s as the new wave and then re-exported back to the U.S. In the guise of the American late 60s and early 70s gritty storytellers ... And now France seems to be borrowing elements of Tarantino in their action films of hyper realism ... This of course is a generalization ... But it's a mutual admiration society ...479 Views · View Upvoters · Answer requested by Paul K. VillenaveJon CorelisAnswered Mar 5 2015A complicated question which really needs to be answered by reading some books on cinema. Most of them I think will agree that the primary influence was from American cinema to French cinema, with the most important American influence being the 1940s Hollywood gangster film noir (the name is French and the concept was invented by French critics, but the genre itself is an American invention.) These gloomy, urban, black and white films were a clear and open influence on French directors like Jean-Pierre Melville and Jacques Becker, who created gangster films clearly influenced by American film noir but with a specifically French sensibility.
French influence on American cinema is, I think, more diffuse and complicated, though directors like Renoir are so important that they surely must have influenced American directors. But for this you need to go to film books.435 Views · View UpvotersNick Thompson, a complete film buff across a load of genresAnswered Mar 6 2015 · Author has 2.6k answers and 1.1m answer viewsMy sense is that In the earky dayd of movies the teo were pretty distinxt with Hollywood seeing movies as mass entettsinment whilst thr Ftench cinema vire movies as a nee art form.
Then in the 50's & 60's Hollywood's film noir had a huge influence on French movies. In turn the French movies industry morphed that influence in a distinctive style that then began to influence Hollywood.
That style was more natural, featured hand held cameras, none chronological sequences and a taut plotline.
In the 90's this style started to creep into American cinema, Pulp Fiction featured some these techniques.
In recent years there have been some Hollywood remakes of French films, for example The Next Three Days (Pour Elle) and Brick Mansions (District 13), whilst A Prophet (a brilliant film) is in the Hollywood works.
Each remake is a pale imitation, in my opinion, of the original lacking the tension, tightness and je ne sais quoi.
So it feels to be from America to France to America.
