SINGAPORE, Nov 12 — So the French Film Festival is in full swing and you do want to sound like you know what is it about this cinematic style which has got artists and film fans swooning.

Here is a cheat sheet of terms to learn and name-drop while you are at the fest:

French New Wave Cinema

Memorise these four words for the rest of your aspiring French cinephile life. French New Wave Cinema was an informal movement that created the explosion of innovative films in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Spearheaded by a handful of movie critics who have come to be renowned French filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Eric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol and Jacques Rivette, their films are known as a complete overhaul of stuffy cinema at the time, exciting audiences who had been looking for a new, energetic filmmaking style and more socially relevant movies. Though the movement quickly dissipated, filmmakers such as Godard, Rivette, Varda, and Rohmer continue with their work even till today.

Catherine Deneuve

Yes, we are all aware of French actresses who have struck it big with mainstream audiences such as Marion Cotillard, who is starring in the upcoming movie Allied with Brad Pitt. Who can forget Audrey Tautou too, for her endearing and quirky performance in Amélie ?

But if you really want to come across as a French film expert, just talk about how much you love 73-year-old actress Deneuve with her years of stellar performances, grace, poise and interminably sex appeal. She is also starring in Standing Tall, one of the movies being screened at the French Film Festival so you can catch the film and find out why she is hailed as one of the "grand dames” of French cinema.

Cannes Film Festival

If this sounds familiar, it is mainly because Singapore films have been showcased at the international film festival in France where they received accolades and positive response. Local filmmaker Anthony Chen found success with his debut feature film, Ilo Ilo, which won the prestigious Camera d’Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. More recently, both Boo Junfeng’s The Apprentice and K. Rajagopal’s A Yellow Bird were screened at the festival this year.

Why is it such a big deal? Cannes Film Festival, held in a French town of the same name, has become a popular international platform where film producers launch their new films and attempt to sell their works to distributors from all over the world. Also given the massive media exposure, the non-public festival is attended by many celebrities and movie stars who have also been known to turn up in fancy yachts at the seaside French town, making the festival seem even more glamorous than it already is.

French Horror Movies

Now, this is the real clincher that will make you sound as if you have your finger on the pulse of French cinema. Not many people know this but French horror movies are in a class of its own, especially in recent years. In the past, French horror directors avoided jump scares and opted for distant cameras and blank characters. However, more recently, the filmmakers of this genre have dared to plough the depths of human nature and been unafraid of using gore to expose the worst of human behaviour for the sake of frightening the daylights out of us.

A good example is, Inside, a 2007 French film that follows a woman, four months after the death of her husband and on the brink of motherhood, being tormented in her home by a strange woman who wants her unborn baby.

The movies are traumatising to say the least. Hollywood, eat your heart out. — TODAY