Alexandre Astruc (b. July 13th 1923) is best known today as an influential film theorist whose article  “la camera-stylo”, written in 1948 for L’Ecran, advocated a more personal cinema and a new film language. As a critic turned director he also set an example for the Cahiers du Cinema directors to follow, but his films, which included Les mauvaises rencontres (Bad Liaisons, 1955) and Une vie (One Life, 1958), were largely overshadowed by the arrival of the bolder, more contemporary movies of the New Wave, and his reputation as a director decreased after 1959.