Jean-Jacques Beineix

Jean-Jacques Beineix is a French film director whose work is generally seen as the best example of what came to be called the cinéma du look. Critic Ginette Vincendeau defined the films made by Beineix and others as "youth-oriented films with high production values...The look of the cinéma du look refers to the films' high investment in non-naturalistic, self-conscious aesthetics, notably intense colours and lighting effects. Their spectacular and technically brilliant mise-en-scène is usually put to the service of romantic plots." The cinéma du look included the films of Luc Besson and Léos Carax. Luc Besson, like Beineix, was much maligned by the critical establishment during the 1980s, while Carax was much admired. In late 2006, Beineix published a first volume of his autobiography, Les Chantiers de la gloire. The title alluded to the French title of Stanley Kubrick's film, Les Sentiers de la gloire.