8 - 20 January 2026
“Producing is the only way to make films.” — Paul Vecchiali
“Vecchiali made films that sometimes slipped by unnoticed and ensured that French cinema remained truly an auteur cinema despite all the pressures it was under. He is a pioneer, and one cannot fail to mention him when talking about French cinema.” — Éric Rohmer
The filmmaker and producer Paul Vecchiali started Diagonale with Cécile Clairval in 1976. As he later put it, “I wanted to be a producer, to make my own films and those of directors with whom I felt I could build up a real language over the long term.”
The company had two arms, one that produced films and one that provided catering for corporate events; the money from the latter helped fund the former. This is an example of the kind of economic ingenuity Vecchiali put into practice to enable films to be made — taking on industrial commissions, using the same crew on multiple productions simultaneously, working as an editor himself for free.
Operating independently of the larger French film industry, Diagonale produced some of the most idiosyncratic films of the late twentieth century. From Vecchiali’s own intoxicating collisions of the New Wave and the popular French cinema of the thirties, to Jean-Claude Biette’s enigmatic fugues on art and life, to Jean-Claude Guiguet’s claustrophobic chamber drama, to Marie-Claude Treilhou’s nocturnal Wunderkammern, Diagonale productions represented a side of Paris that had been hidden from cinema: the suburbs, gay clubs, cruising spots, the homes of the middle-aged and the unemployed. These films eschewed the naturalism ascendant in the French cinema of the seventies for a return to the pleasures of performance, décor and music, all tinged with the harshness of a square look at life behind closed doors in urban France.
This programme of five of Diagonale’s finest productions marks the release of issue 2 of the international film quarterly Narrow Margin, which is dedicated to the work produced by the company and includes over 100,000 words of new or newly-translated writing. The films will be screened from recent restorations, four of which have never been shown theatrically in the UK.
“Producing is the only way to make films.” — Paul Vecchiali
“Vecchiali made films that sometimes slipped by unnoticed and ensured that French cinema remained truly an auteur cinema despite all the pressures it was under. He is a pioneer, and one cannot fail to mention him when talking about French cinema.” — Éric Rohmer
The filmmaker and producer Paul Vecchiali started Diagonale with Cécile Clairval in 1976. As he later put it, “I wanted to be a producer, to make my own films and those of directors with whom I felt I could build up a real language over the long term.”
The company had two arms, one that produced films and one that provided catering for corporate events; the money from the latter helped fund the former. This is an example of the kind of economic ingenuity Vecchiali put into practice to enable films to be made — taking on industrial commissions, using the same crew on multiple productions simultaneously, working as an editor himself for free.
Operating independently of the larger French film industry, Diagonale produced some of the most idiosyncratic films of the late twentieth century. From Vecchiali’s own intoxicating collisions of the New Wave and the popular French cinema of the thirties, to Jean-Claude Biette’s enigmatic fugues on art and life, to Jean-Claude Guiguet’s claustrophobic chamber drama, to Marie-Claude Treilhou’s nocturnal Wunderkammern, Diagonale productions represented a side of Paris that had been hidden from cinema: the suburbs, gay clubs, cruising spots, the homes of the middle-aged and the unemployed. These films eschewed the naturalism ascendant in the French cinema of the seventies for a return to the pleasures of performance, décor and music, all tinged with the harshness of a square look at life behind closed doors in urban France.
This programme of five of Diagonale’s finest productions marks the release of issue 2 of the international film quarterly Narrow Margin, which is dedicated to the work produced by the company and includes over 100,000 words of new or newly-translated writing. The films will be screened from recent restorations, four of which have never been shown theatrically in the UK.
Programme
Thursday 8 January, 6.30pm
Femmes femmes + Introduction
The film that first united many of the cast and crew members who would become Diagonale mainstays, Paul Vecchiali’s Femmes femmes, lauded as “exceptionally beautiful” by Pier Paolo Pasolini, depicts the eccentric lives of two unemployed middle-aged actresses who share the same flat in Paris.
Saturday 10 January, 4pm
Le Théâtre des matières
One of the pair of films with which Diagonale was inaugurated, Jean-Claude Biette’s debut feature explores the lives of the members of a small, cash-strapped theatrical company on the outskirts of Paris, in an understated and offbeat meditation on making art in difficult conditions.
Wednesday 14 January, 6.30pm
Les Belles Manières + Introduction
Jean-Claude Guiguet’s stark, claustrophobic story of class and constraint sees Camille, a young proletarian from the provinces, arrive in Paris to work for the grande bourgeoise Hélène, whose son has spent two years voluntarily confined to his bedroom.
Saturday 17 January, 4pm
Simone Barbès ou la vertu
Marie-Claude Treilhou drew on her own experience as an usher in an adult cinema for her debut film, which follows its title character over the course of a single night, from a shift dealing with porn theatre clientele, to a bizarre lesbian cabaret, to a car ride shared with a melancholy older man, in an unforgettable depiction of an unseen Paris.
Tuesday 20 January, 6.30pm
Once More
Paul Vecchiali’s masterpiece, constructed out of meticulously choreographed sequence shots, is perhaps the apex of what Diagonale achieved. The first French film to depict the AIDS crisis, it tells the story of a middle-aged family man who decides to leave his wife and pursue his attraction to men.
Thursday 8 January, 6.30pm
Femmes femmes + Introduction
The film that first united many of the cast and crew members who would become Diagonale mainstays, Paul Vecchiali’s Femmes femmes, lauded as “exceptionally beautiful” by Pier Paolo Pasolini, depicts the eccentric lives of two unemployed middle-aged actresses who share the same flat in Paris.
Saturday 10 January, 4pm
Le Théâtre des matières
One of the pair of films with which Diagonale was inaugurated, Jean-Claude Biette’s debut feature explores the lives of the members of a small, cash-strapped theatrical company on the outskirts of Paris, in an understated and offbeat meditation on making art in difficult conditions.
Wednesday 14 January, 6.30pm
Les Belles Manières + Introduction
Jean-Claude Guiguet’s stark, claustrophobic story of class and constraint sees Camille, a young proletarian from the provinces, arrive in Paris to work for the grande bourgeoise Hélène, whose son has spent two years voluntarily confined to his bedroom.
Saturday 17 January, 4pm
Simone Barbès ou la vertu
Marie-Claude Treilhou drew on her own experience as an usher in an adult cinema for her debut film, which follows its title character over the course of a single night, from a shift dealing with porn theatre clientele, to a bizarre lesbian cabaret, to a car ride shared with a melancholy older man, in an unforgettable depiction of an unseen Paris.
Tuesday 20 January, 6.30pm
Once More
Paul Vecchiali’s masterpiece, constructed out of meticulously choreographed sequence shots, is perhaps the apex of what Diagonale achieved. The first French film to depict the AIDS crisis, it tells the story of a middle-aged family man who decides to leave his wife and pursue his attraction to men.
no. 236848.