Swiss director Claude Goretta did most of his feature-film work in France and is known for his sharp insights on human nature as can be seen in such films such as The Lacemaker (1977). He was born in Geneva and earned a law degree from the University of Geneva. Later Goretta studied at the British Film Institute where, in 1957, he made his first short film Nice Time with co-director Alain Tanner. He spent most of the 1960s working in Swiss television, and made his feature-film debut in 1970.