Poetic realism

Poetic realism was a film movement in France leading up to World War II. It includes the films of Jean Renoir, Jean Cocteau, and Marcel Carné. It generally involves a heightened aestheticism combined with heavy themes of class relations. The movement had a significant impact on later film movements, in particular Italian neorealism (many of the neorealists, most notably Luchino Visconti and Michelangelo Antonioni worked with poetic realist directors before starting their own careers as film critics and directors) and the French new wave.

Notable films:

• Grand Illusion
• Children of Paradise
• Rules of the Game