French Film: Texts and Contexts

by Hayward,Susan

• ISBN13: 9780415161176
• ISBN10: 0415161177
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-02-08
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

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 HaineThe 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

List of plates	ix
Notes on contributors	xi
Preface	xv
Acknowledgements	xvii
Introduction	1	(8)
Susan Hayward
Ginette Vincendeau
In the name of the father: Marcel Pagnol's `trilogy' Marius (1931), Fanny (1932), Cesar (1936)	9	(18)
Ginette Vincendeau
Paris, Arizona; or the redemption of difference: Jean Renoir's Le Crime de Monsieur Lange (1935)	27	(15)
Christopher Faulkner
The fleeing gaze: Jean Renoir's La Bete humaine (1938)	42	(21)
Michele Lagny
Poetic realism as psychoanalytical and ideological operation: Marcel Carne's Le Jour se leve (1939)	63	(15)
Maureen Turim
Beneath the despair, the show goes on: Marcel Carne's Les Enfants du paradis (1943--5)	78	(11)
Jean-Pierre Jeancolas
The sacrament of writing: Robert Bresson's Le Journal d'un cure de campagne (1951)	89	(11)
Keith A. Reader
A breath of sea air: Jacques Tati's Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1952)	100	(12)
Pierre Sorlin
Casque d'or, casquettes, a cask of ageing wine: Jacques Becker's Casque d'or (1952)	112	(15)
Dudley Andrew
No place for homosexuality: Marcel Carne's L'Air de Paris (1954)	127	(15)
Richard Dyer
The script of delinquency: Francois Truffaut's Les 400 coups (1959)	142	(16)
Anne Gillain
`It really makes you sick!': Jean-Luc Godard's A bout de souffle (1959)	158	(16)
Michel Marie
The fall of the gods: Jean-Luc Godard's Le Mepris (1963)	174	(15)
Jacques Aumont
Mise-en-scene degree zero: Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samourai (1967)	189	(13)
Colin McArthur
Eye for irony: Eric Rohmer's Ma nuit chez Maud (1969)	202	(11)
Norman King
Sex, politics and popular culture: Bertrand Blier's Les Valseuses (1973)	213	(14)
Jill Forbes
The anti-carnival of collaboration: Louis Malle's Lacombe Lucien (1974)	227	(13)
H. R. Kedward
Maternal legacies: Diane Kurys' Coup de foudre (1983)	240	(13)
Carrie Tarr
Representing the sexual impasse: Eric Rohmer's Les Nuits de la pleine lune (1984)	253	(16)
Bernice Reynaud
Beyond the gaze and into femme-filmecriture: Agnes Varda's Sans toit ni loi (1985)	269	(12)
Susan Hayward
Versions, verse and verve: Jean-Paul Rappeneau's Cyrano de Bergerac (1990)	281	(16)
Julianne Pidduck
Recycled woman and the postmodern aesthetic: Luc Besson's Nikita (1990)	297	(13)
Susan Hayward
Designs on the banlieue: Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine (1995)	310	(18)
Ginette Vincendeau
Selected bibliography on French cinema	328	(9)
Index	337