Inside France, director Maurice Pialat was considered a genius, the heir to legendary French auteurs like Bresson and Renoir. When he died in 2003, he was honored by French President Jacques Chirac, and one critic grieved, “French cinema has been orphaned.”
Outside France, even among Francophile film buffs, few people really know Pialat’s work. This sounds like a job for the UW-Cinematheque.