​

Romain Novarina — A French Filmmaker from the Underground / contre-culture

​

Romain Novarina is an independent French filmmaker,

writer, producer and video artist whose work moves between independent cinema, music,

underground culture and contemporary art.

​

The nephew of acclaimed French writer and playwright Valère Novarina, Romain grew up in a family deeply rooted in architecture and the arts. His father, Patrice Novarina, is a French architect and visual artist, while his grandfather, Maurice Novarina, was a major French architect and a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. On his mother’s side, his grandmother Élyane Monge was an actress, and her husband Jean Monge was a French architect who worked on the reconstruction of Saint-Malo and traveled with pioneering French filmmaker and ethnologist Jean Rouch.

​

This artistic lineage shaped Novarina’s early relationship with cinema and contemporary culture. The Novarina and Monge families were also close to legendary French actress Bernadette Lafont and filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, whom Romain Novarina considers one of his major intellectual and artistic mentors.

​

Novarina was later mentored by filmmaker Yves Boisset, who became his artistic godfather and introduced him to cult actor Jean-Pierre Kalfon, a key figure of the French New Wave and the country’s underground film and rock scene. Novarina and Kalfon have collaborated on screenwriting projects.

​

A committed independent filmmaker, Novarina embraces the spirit of Dogme 95, the radical filmmaking movement created by Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg. His work spans documentary, music video, interviews, fiction and experimental film, with an emphasis on artistic freedom and unconventional filmmaking.

​

Music is another major part of his world. Novarina was a close friend of French music icons Christophe and Rachid Taha. His artistic universe also connects with figures such as Larry Clark, whose independent filmmaking and underground aesthetic resonate with his own approach.

​

His cinematic influences include Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, Todd Solondz and Shinya Tsukamoto, reflecting a fascination with filmmakers who have challenged conventional forms. His interest in Japanese underground cinema extends to Nobuhiko Ōbayashi, while Japanese pop culture has become a major influence on his visual imagination.

For more than twenty-five years, Novarina has collected Japanese sofubi, the soft-vinyl figures that evolved from an underground Japanese toy culture into a global pop-culture and art-toy phenomenon. His fascination with Japanese monsters, science fiction, folklore and outsider art has become part of his own creative identity.

A longtime expert in British pop, independent rock and minimalist electronic music, Novarina counts David Bowie, Brian Eno, Pan Sonic and Mogwai among his musical references. He has also filmed Mogwai, connecting his filmmaking practice directly with the international independent music scene.

​

Moving between European auteur cinema, American independent film, Japanese underground culture, electronic music and global pop culture, Romain Novarina has developed a distinctly personal voice — shaped by an extraordinary artistic lineage, decades of creative encounters and a commitment to working outside conventional boundaries.