The situation of science fiction in French cinema is quite paradoxical. As with science fiction literature and Jules Verne, France can claim paternity of the genre with A Trip to the Moon by George Méliès in 1902. Yet, beyond this promising start, it is difficult to find any consistent body of work by a single director in the genre. As so often no man is a prophet in his own country, the Vernian heritage has been exploited much more in the United States than in France—in literature through Hugo Gernsback's 1926 manifesto and later on screen by Disney studios. The aim of this chapter is to explore this paradox by following the broken trail of French science fiction cinema through the twentieth century in order to trace the family tree of recent productions. The chapter then goes on to focus on two directors: Jean Pierre-Jeunet and Marc Caro. Their work provides us with rare examples of the multiple faces of French science fiction cinema and its love-hate relationship with French cultural institutions on the one hand, and the American movie industry on the other.

A Question of Genre

Méliès is often considered the father of science fiction cinema. At a time that predates our modern generic classifications, Georges Méliès, who was initially a stage magician, freely played with those skills to trick and fascinate his audience in his famous Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon, 1902). Méliès wrote his stories, designed his costumes, painted his background sets, invented his special effects, played characters, and directed his films. They were shown in the theater he owned and in fun fairs. Even though Méliès stands as a single example, his facetious play on illusions and cinematographic techniques initiated a strong trend of science fiction as an avant-garde experimentation with narrative techniques and genres that was taken up by the Surrealist movement. In the 1920s, as Hugo Gernsback wrote his ‘scientifiction manifesto’ in the US, André Breton wrote the Surrealist manifestos (1924 and 1929) in France. This coincidence of literary history had consequences for the way French cinema later approached the genre.

Science Fiction and the French New Wave(Truffaut, Marker, Resnais, Godard)

After Méliès, the French New Wave movement of the 1950s and 1960s undoubtedly produced the most influential science fiction films in France.