Sarah Perks, Isabelle Vanderschelden, and Andy Willis
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781906733162
- eISBN:
- 9781800342002
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781906733162.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Taking a text-led approach, with the emphasis on more recent popular films, Studying French Cinema is directed at non-specialists such as students of French, film studies, and the general reader with ...
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Taking a text-led approach, with the emphasis on more recent popular films, Studying French Cinema is directed at non-specialists such as students of French, film studies, and the general reader with an interest in post-war French cinema. Each of the chapters focuses on one or more key films from the ground-breaking films of the nouvelle vague (Les 400 coups, 1959) to contemporary documentary (Etre et avoir, 2002) and puts them into their relevant contexts. Depending on the individual film, these include explorations of childhood, adolescence and coming of age (Les 400 coups, L'Argent de poche); auteur ideology and individual style (the films of Jean-Luc Godard and Agnes Varda); the representation of recent French history (Lacombe Lucien and Au revoir les enfants); transnational production practices (Le Pacte des loups); and popular cinema, comedy and gender issues (e.g. Le Diner de cons). Each film is embedded in its cultural and political context. Together, the historical discussions provide an overview of post-war French history to the present. Useful suggestions are made as to studies of related films, both those discussed within the book and outside.Less
Taking a text-led approach, with the emphasis on more recent popular films, Studying French Cinema is directed at non-specialists such as students of French, film studies, and the general reader with an interest in post-war French cinema. Each of the chapters focuses on one or more key films from the ground-breaking films of the nouvelle vague (Les 400 coups, 1959) to contemporary documentary (Etre et avoir, 2002) and puts them into their relevant contexts. Depending on the individual film, these include explorations of childhood, adolescence and coming of age (Les 400 coups, L'Argent de poche); auteur ideology and individual style (the films of Jean-Luc Godard and Agnes Varda); the representation of recent French history (Lacombe Lucien and Au revoir les enfants); transnational production practices (Le Pacte des loups); and popular cinema, comedy and gender issues (e.g. Le Diner de cons). Each film is embedded in its cultural and political context. Together, the historical discussions provide an overview of post-war French history to the present. Useful suggestions are made as to studies of related films, both those discussed within the book and outside.
Isabelle Vanderschelden
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781906733162
- eISBN:
- 9781800342002
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781906733162.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the French cinema. The French like to think the first cinematic experiments originated from France in 1895 with the realist cinema of the Lumière ...
More
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the French cinema. The French like to think the first cinematic experiments originated from France in 1895 with the realist cinema of the Lumière Brothers' Sortie d'usine/Workers Leaving the Factory and L'Arrivée du train dans la gare de la Ciotat/Arrival of a Train at a Station, and the magical film moments of Georges Méliès's Voyage dans la lune/A Trip to the Moon (1902). These directors initiated a polarised vision of French cinema, which led to the familiar distinctions between realism and fantasy, documentary and fiction film. Even nowadays, French films continue to be introduced and defined in reviews and essays in relation to these two poles. A third early influence was the intellectual cinema of ideas of Louis Delluc in the 1910s and his critical writings, which initiated the first avant-garde period of French cinema after the First World War and have remained a fundamental influence for French cinema. The chapter then outlines some of the main key concepts underlying Film Studies, such as the importance of 'Auteur theory' and certain generic specificities associated with French films.Less
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the French cinema. The French like to think the first cinematic experiments originated from France in 1895 with the realist cinema of the Lumière Brothers' Sortie d'usine/Workers Leaving the Factory and L'Arrivée du train dans la gare de la Ciotat/Arrival of a Train at a Station, and the magical film moments of Georges Méliès's Voyage dans la lune/A Trip to the Moon (1902). These directors initiated a polarised vision of French cinema, which led to the familiar distinctions between realism and fantasy, documentary and fiction film. Even nowadays, French films continue to be introduced and defined in reviews and essays in relation to these two poles. A third early influence was the intellectual cinema of ideas of Louis Delluc in the 1910s and his critical writings, which initiated the first avant-garde period of French cinema after the First World War and have remained a fundamental influence for French cinema. The chapter then outlines some of the main key concepts underlying Film Studies, such as the importance of 'Auteur theory' and certain generic specificities associated with French films.
