French Film

Texts and Contexts

Susan Hayward, Ginette Vincendeau

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781136214868
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Media Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

The second edition of this innovative textbook brings together leading scholars to provide detailed analyses of twenty-two key films within the canon of French cinema, from the 1920s to the 1990s. Films discussed include:
* masterpieces such as Renoir's La Bete Humaine and Carne's Les Enfants du Paradis
* popular classics such as Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot and Ma Nuit chez Maud
* landmarks of the New Wave such as Les 400 Coups and A bout de souffle
* important films of the 1990s such as Nikita and La Haine
The films are considered in relation to such issues as the history of French cinema, the social and cultural contexts of their production and reception, the relationship with Hollywood cinema, gender politics, authorship and genre. Each article is accompanied with a guide to further reading and a filmography of the director, and the new edition also includes a fully revised introduction and a bibliography on French cinema.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of plates
• Notes on contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 In the name of the father: Marcel Pagnol’s ‘trilogy’ Marius (1931), Fanny (1932), César (1936)
• 2 Paris, Arizona; or the redemption of difference: Jean Renoirs Le Crime de Monsieur Lange (1935)
• 3 The fleeing gaze: Jean Renoir’s La Bête humaine (1938)
• 4 Poetic realism as psychoanalytical and ideological operation: Marcel Carné’s Le Jour se lève (1939)
• 5 Beneath the despair, the show goes on: Marcel Carné’s Les Enfants du paradis (1943–5)
• 6 The sacrament of writing: Robert Bresson’s Le Journal d’un curé de campagne (1951)
• 7 A breath of sea air: Jacques Tati’s Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1952)
• 8 Casque dor, casquettes, a cask of ageing wine: Jacques Becker’s Casque d’or (1952)
• 9 No place for homosexuality: Marcel Carné’s L’Air de Paris (1954)
• 10 The script of delinquency: François Truffaut’s Les 400 coups (1959)
• 11 ‘It really makes you sick!’: Jean-Luc Godard’s A bout de souffle (1959)
• 12 The fall of the gods: Jean-Luc Godard’s Le Mépris (1963)
• 13 Mise-en-scène degree zero: Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï (1967)
• 14 Eye for irony: Eric Rohmer’s Ma nuit chez Maud (1969)
• 15 Sex, politics and popular culture: Bertrand Blier’s Les Valseuses (1973)
• 16 The anti-carnival of collaboration: Louis Malle’s Lacombe Lucien (1974)
• 17 Maternal legacies: Diane Kurys’ Coup de foudre (1983)
• 18 Representing the sexual impasse: Eric Rohmer’s Les Nuits de la pleine lune (1984)
• 19 Beyond the gaze and into femme-filmécriture: Agnès Varda’s Sans toit ni loi (1985)
• 20 Versions, verse and verve: Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s Cyrano de Bergerac (1990)
• 21 Recycled woman and the postmodern aesthetic: Luc Besson’s Nikita (1990)
• 22 Designs on the banlieue: Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine (1995)
• Selected bibliography on French cinema
• Index