(3 of 3)
The French seem to enjoy such youthful excesses, even though many audiences have been disturbed by the curious sense of moral vacuum in many of the pictures. Aside from a general distaste for bourgeois respectability and a slight leaning toward the left, very few of the films express any moral or spiritual convictions whatever. Nevertheless, Les Vaguistes have their principles. They hate commercialism. They prefer to make pictures on subjects of their own choice. They would rather use unknown actors. "They speak of cinema," says one critic, "as of a religion.'' So far, it seems to be a religion in which demons figure more prominently than angels, but so long as the new cult of cinema can create a ritual as richly moving as Black Orpheus, it will claim its converts.
*No kin to Novelist Albert Camus (The Plague, The Fall).