Maurice Pialat
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Maurice Pialat (21 August 1925 – 11 January 2003) was a French film director, screenwriter and actor noted for the rigorous and unsentimental style of his films. His work is often described as being realist, though many film critics acknowledge that it does not fit the traditional definition of cineatic realism.
In a posthumous tribute written for the French film magazine Positif, critic Noël Herpe referred to Pialat's style as a "a naturalism that was born of formalism." In English-language film criticism, he is often compared to his American contemporary John Cassavetes.
Summarizing Pialat's stance as a filmmaker in a profile for Film Comment, critic Kent Jones wrote: "To say that Pialat marched to the beat of a different drummer is to put it mildly. In fact, he didn't really march at all. He ambled, and fuck anybody who got it into their head that they'd like to amble along with him. Or behind him. Or ahead of him."
