Cinéma du look was a
French film movement of the 1980s, analysed, for the first time, by French critic
Raphaël Bassan in La Revue du Cinéma issue n° 448, May 1989, in which he classified
Luc Besson,
Jean-Jacques Beineix and
Leos Carax as directors of "le look." These directors were said to favor style over substance, spectacle over narrative. It referred to films that had a slick, gorgeous visual style and a focus on young, alienated characters who were said to represent the marginalized youth of
François Mitterrand's France. Themes that run through many of their films include doomed love affairs, young people more affiliated to peer groups rather than families, a cynical view of the police, and the use of scenes in the
Paris Métro to symbolise an alternative, underground society. The mixture of 'high' culture, such as the opera music of
Diva and
Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, and pop culture, for example the references to
Batman in
Subway, was another key feature.