The European film world did not hesitate to call 2015 Paul Vecchiali’s year. The director, who had been forgotten for a while, was invited to the Cannes International Film Festival the following year for the first time in many years, and his retrospective was held in Europe. Starting with his debut film The Small Dramas (1961), Vecchiali has made more than thirty feature films and many more short films. Like many of his colleagues in the French New Wave, he wrote for film magazines like Cahiers du Cinéma. However, this veteran director has taken the road less travelled. Despite his ups and downs in difficult circumstances, he has steadfastly adhered to the low-budget independent filmmaking system. As a critic, he does not hesitate to speak up and provoke controversy, sometimes taking a rather extreme view. Now in his 90s, Vecchiali continues to make films, and today’s audiences who belatedly discover his films are bound to be surprised at the modernity of his cinematic experiments prompted by formal restrictions, not to mention his unbiased views towards prostitutes, homosexuals, and the socially disadvantaged.