French Cinema

Of all European cinema, the most important is French. France annually produces more films than any other European nation, and throughout its history it has been the key competitor to Hollywood; it is Cannes that matters most after the Oscars. Moreover, the study of film as an academic discipline emerged from France during the 1950s, and was shaped by the work of French intellectuals during the 1960s and 1970s. And in the broad field of international scholarship that is Film Studies, after Hollywood, there are more scholars working in French cinema than any other national cinema.

As serious research on French cinema continues to flourish, this new four-volume collection from Routledge meets the need for an authoritative anthology to enable users to navigate and make sense of the subject’s large body of scholarship, and the continuing explosion in research output. Edited by Phil Powrie, Chief General Editor of the only academic journal specifically devoted to French cinema, and chair of the Association for Studies in French Cinema, this new Routledge title is a ‘mini library’ of foundational and the very best cutting-edge work. The gathered major works bring together the best and most influential writing on French cinema. Volume I engages with two different forms of scholarship: popular cinema (genres and stars) and influential conceptualizations of French cinema. Volume II adopts the more canonical–historical approach for the period up to the New Wave, assembling the best work on the silent period, the Golden Age of the 1930s and early 1940s, and the New Wave of the early 1960s. Volumes III and IV, meanwhile, focus on the post-New Wave period from the mid-1960s onwards.

The set includes an introduction to the subject, newly written by the editor, which places the gathered materials in their historical and intellectual context. Indeed, French Cinema is an essential work of reference, and is destined to be valued by scholars and advanced students as a vital research tool.

Volume I: Stars, Genres, and Concepts

Part 1: Genres

1. Tom Gunning, ‘Attractions, Detection, Disguise: Zigomar, Jasset, and the History of Genres in Early Film’, Griffithiana, May 1993, 47, 111–35.

2. Jill Forbes, ‘Hollywood-France: America as Influence and Intertext’, in Jill Forbes, French Cinema since the New Wave (BFI/Macmillan, 1992), pp. 47–75.

3. Susan Hayward, ‘Reviewing Quality Cinema: French Costume Drama of the 1950s’, Studies in French Cinema, 2008, 8, 3, 229–44.

4. Guy Austin, ‘The Heritage Film’, Contemporary French Cinema: An Introduction (Manchester University Press, 1996), pp. 142–70.

5. Jill Forbes, ‘Sex, Politics and Popular Culture: Bertrand Blier’s Les Valseuses (1973)’, in Susan Hayward and Ginette Vincendeau (eds.), French Film: Texts and Contexts, 2nd edn. (Routledge, 2000), pp. 213–26.

6. Sue Harris, ‘Les Comiques font de la résistance: Dramatic Trends in Popular Film Comedy’, Australian Journal of French Studies, 1998, 35, 1, 86–99.

7. Ben McCann, ‘Pierced Borders, Punctured Bodies: The Contemporary French Horror Film’, Australian Journal of French Studies, Sept.–Dec. 2008, 45, 225–37.

Part 2: Stars

8. Ginette Vincendeau, ‘The French Star System’, in Ginette Vincendeau, Stars and Stardom in French Cinema (Continuum, 2000), pp. 1–41.

9. Phil Powrie and Eric Rebillard, ‘Josephine Baker and Pierre Batcheff in La Sirène des tropiques’, Studies in French Cinema, 2008, 8, 3, 245–64.

10. Judith Mayne, ‘Danielle Darrieux, French Female Stardom, and the Occupation’, Studies in French Cinema, 2010, 10, 2, 169–87.

11. Andrew Asibong, ‘The Killing of Sister Catherine: Deneuve’s Lesbian Transformations’, in Lisa Downing and Sue Harris (eds.), From Perversion to Purity: The Stardom of Catherine Deneuve (Manchester University Press, 2007),
pp. 144–60.

12. Graeme Hayes, ‘Framing the Wolf: The Spectacular Masculinity of Alain Delon’, in Phil Powrie, Ann Davies, and Bruce Babington (eds.), The Trouble with Men: Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema (Wallflower Press, 2004), pp. 42–53.

13. Ginette Vincendeau, ‘Gérard Depardieu: The Axiom of Contemporary French Cinema’, Screen, 1993, 34, 4, 343–61.

14. Guy Austin, ‘Foreign Bodies: Jean Seberg and Isabelle Adjani’, Stars in Modern French Film (Arnold, 2003),
pp. 192–206.

15. Jacqueline Nacache, ‘Group Portrait with a Star: Jeanne Balibar and French "Jeune" Cinema’, Studies in French Cinema, 2005, 5, 1, 49–60.

16. Guy Austin, ‘The Amateur Actors of Cannes 1999: A Shock to the (Star) System’, French Cultural Studies, 2004, 15, 3, 251–63.

Part 3: Concepts

17. Ginette Vincendeau, ‘Daddy’s Girl: Oedipal Narratives in 1930s French Films’, Iris, 1989, 8, 71–80.

18. Ginette Vincendeau, ‘Family Plots: The Fathers and Daughters of French Cinema’, Sight & Sound, 1992, 1, 11, 14–17.

19. James S. Williams and Brigitte Rollet, ‘Visions of Excess: Filming/Writing the Gay Self in Collard’s Savage Nights’, in Alex Hughes, Owen Heathcote, and James S. Williams (eds.), Gay Signatures (Berg, 1998), pp. 193–208.

20. Phil Powrie, ‘Heritage, History and the "New Realism"’, Modern & Contemporary France, 1998, 6, 4, 479–92.

21. Guy Austin, ‘Algeria and Colonial Trauma in Contemporary French Cinema’, Yale French Studies, 2009, 155, 115–25.

22. Carrie Tarr, ‘French Cinema and Post-colonial Minorities’, in A. G. Hargreaves and M. McKinney (eds.), Postcolonial Cultures in France (Routledge, 1997), pp. 59–83.

23. Libby Saxton, ‘Anamnesis and Bearing Witness’, in Michael Temple, Michael Witt, and James S. Williams (eds.), For Ever Godard (Black Dog, 2004), pp. 364–79.

Volume II: To the Nouvelle Vague

Part 4: Silent Period: Georges Méliès (1861–1938), Louis Feuillade (1873–1925), Germaine Dulac (1882–1942), Jean Epstein (1897–1953), René Clair (1898–1981), Luis Buñuel (1900–83)

24. Richard Abel, ‘Booming the Film Business: The Historical Specificity of Early French Cinema’, French Cultural Studies, 1990, 1, 79–94.

25. André Gaudreault, ‘Theatricality, Narrativity, and Trickality: Re-evaluating the Cinema of Georges Méliès’, in Matthew Solomon (ed.), Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination (SUNY, 2010), pp. 31–48.

26. Vicki Callahan, ‘Zones of Anxiety: Movement, Musidora, and the Crime Serials of Louis Feuillade’, Velvet Light Trap, 1996, 37, 37–50.

27. Tami Williams, ‘Dancing with Light: Choreographies of Gender in the Cinema of Germaine Dulac’, in Dietrich Scheunemann and Alexander Graf (eds.), Avant-Garde Film (Rodopi, 2007), pp. 121–31.

28. Nicole Brenez, ‘Ultra-Modern: Jean Epstein, or Cinema "Serving the Forces of Transgression and Revolt"’, in Sarah Keller and Jason N. Paul (eds.), Jean Epstein: Critical Essays and New Translations (Amsterdam University Press, 2012),
pp. 227–43.

29. Elizabeth Ezra, ‘Apocalypse Then: French Disaster Films of the 1920s’, Studies in French Cinema, 2001, 1, 1, 5–12.

30. Linda Williams, ‘The Prologue to Un Chien Andalou: A Surrealist Film Metaphor’, Screen, 1976, 17, 4, 24–33.

Part 5: 1930s–40s: Marcel Pagnol (1875–1974), Jean Cocteau (1889–1963), Jean Renoir (1894–1979),
Jean Vigo (1905–34), Marcel Carné (1906–96)

31. Colin Crisp, ‘Introduction’, Genre, Myth and Convention in the French Cinema, 1929–1939 (Indiana University Press, 2002), pp. i–xxv.

32. Kelley Conway, ‘Flower of the Asphalt: The Chanteuse Réaliste in 1930s French Cinema’, in Pamela Wojcik and Arthur Knight (eds.), Soundtrack Available: Essays on Film and Popular Music (Duke University Press, 2001), pp. 134–48.

33. Dudley Andrew, ‘French Popular Cinema and the Music-Hall’, in Richard Dyer and Ginette Vincendeau (eds.), Popular European Cinema (Routledge, 1992), pp. 15–29.

34. James S. Williams, Jean Cocteau (Manchester University Press, 2006), pp. 118–32.

35. Ginette Vincendeau, ‘Marcel Pagnol, Vichy and Classical French Cinema’, Studies in French Cinema, 2009, 9, 1, 5–23.

36. Martin O’Shaughnessy, ‘Nation, History and Gender in the Films of Jean Renoir’, in Elizabeth Ezra and
Sue Harris (eds.), France in Focus: Film and National Identity (Berg, 2000), pp. 127–44.

37. Keith Reader, ‘The Circular Ruins? Frontiers, Exile and the Nation in Renoir’s Le Crime de Monsieur Lange’, French Studies, 2000, 54, 3, 287–97.

38. Steve Ungar, ‘Jean Vigo, L’Atalante, and the Promise of Social Cinema’, Historical Reflections, 2009, 35, 2, 63–83.

39. Maureen Turim, ‘Poetic Realism as Psychoanalytical and Ideological Operation: Marcel Carné’s Le Jour se lève’, in Susan Hayward and Ginette Vincendeau (eds.), French Film: Texts and Contexts (Routledge, 1989), pp. 103–16.

Part 6: The Nouvelle Vague and After: Eric Rohmer (1920–2010), Alain Resnais (b. 1922),
Jacques Rozier (b. 1926), Jacques Rivette (b. 1928), Agnès Varda (b. 1928), Claude Chabrol (1930–2010),
Jean-Luc Godard (b. 1930), Louis Malle (1932–95), François Truffaut (1932–84)

40. Kristin Ross, ‘Moving Pictures’, Fast Cars, Clean Bodies: Decolonization and the Reordering of French Culture (MIT Press, 1995), pp. 22–54.

41. Geneviève Sellier, ‘Gender, Modernism, and Mass Culture in the New Wave’, in Alex Hughes and
James S. Williams (eds.), Gender and French Cinema (Berg, 2001), pp. 125–38.

42. Fiona Handyside, ‘Rohmer à la plage: The Role of the Beach in Three Films by Eric Rohmer’, Studies in French Cinema, 2009, 9, 2, 147–60.

43. Lynn A. Higgins, ‘Figuring Out: L’Année dernière à Marienbad’, New Novel, New Wave, New Politics: Fiction and the Representation of History in Postwar France (University of Nebraska Press, 1996), pp. 83–112.

44. Richard Neupert, ‘Adieu Philippine and Rozier’s Alternative Sound Practice’, Studies in French Cinema, 2011, 11, 1,
31–42.

45. Patrick ffrench, ‘Play Space, Plot Structure: Theatricality and Conspiracy in the Films of Jacques Rivette’, Australian Journal of French Studies, 2010, 47, 2, 160–70.

46. Jill Forbes, ‘Gender and Space in Cléo de 5 à 7’, Studies in French Cinema, 2002, 2, 2, 83–9.

47. Guy Austin, ‘The New Wave’, Claude Chabrol (Manchester University Press, 1999), pp. 13–29.

48. Colin MacCabe and Laura Mulvey, ‘Images of Woman, Images of Sexuality’, Godard: Images, Sounds, Politics
(BFI, 1980), pp. 84–101.

49. David Nicholls, ‘Louis Malle’s Ascenseur pour l’échafaud and the Presence of Colonial Wars in French Cinema’, French Cultural Studies, 1996, 7, 21, 271–82.

50. T. Jefferson Kline, ‘Anxious Affinities: Text as Screen in Truffaut’s Jules et Jim’, L’Esprit créateur, 1989, 29, 61–71.

Volume III: From the Nouvelle Vague to the Millennium

Part 7: Around the Nouvelle Vague: Robert Bresson (1901–99), Jacques Becker (1906–60),
Jacques Tati (1907–82), Georges Franju (1912–87), Jean-Pierre Melville (1917–73), Jacques Demy (1931–90), Jean Eustache (1938–81)

51. Keith Reader, ‘"D’où cela vient-il?" Notes on Three Films by Robert Bresson’, French Studies, 1986, 40, 4, 427–42.

52. Dudley Andrew, ‘Casque d’or, Casquettes, a Cask of Ageing Wine: Jacques Becker’s Casque d’or (1952)’, in Susan Hayward and Ginette Vincendeau (eds.), French Film: Texts and Contexts, 2nd edn. (Routledge, 2000), pp. 112–26.

53. Pierre Sorlin, ‘A Breath of Sea Air: Jacques Tati’s Les Vacances de M. Hulot (1952)’, in Susan Hayward and Ginette Vincendeau (eds.), French Film: Texts and Contexts (Routledge, 1989), pp. 147–56.

54. Kate Ince, ‘Surviving the Reign of the Father: The Family and the Law in the Cinema of Georges Franju’, Studies in French Cinema, 2004, 4, 3, 209–17.

55. Tim Palmer, ‘Jean-Pierre Melville and 1970s French Film Style’, Studies in French Cinema, 2002, 2, 3, 135–46.

56. Robynn J. Stilwell, ‘Le Demy-monde: The Bewitched, Betwixt, and Between French Musical’, in Hugh Dauncey and Steve Cannon (eds.), French Popular Music (Ashgate Press, 2003), pp. 123–38.

57. Jill Forbes, ‘Psychoanalysis as Narrative in Films by Jean Eustache’, French Cultural Studies, 2003, 14, 3, 249–56.

Part 8: From the 1980s: Maurice Pialat (1925–2003), Agnès Varda (b. 1928), Louis Malle (1932–95),
Krzysztof Kieslowski (1941–96), Patrice Leconte (b. 1947)

58. Ginette Vincendeau, ‘Therapeutic Realism: Maurice Pialat’s A nos amours (1983)’, in Susan Hayward and Ginette Vincendeau (eds.), French Film: Texts and Contexts (Routledge, 1989), pp. 257–68.

59. Lynn A. Higgins, ‘Looks That Kill: Louis Malle’s Portraits of Collaboration’, New Novel, New Wave, New Politics: Fiction and the Representation of History in Postwar France (University of Nebraska Press, 1996), pp. 186–206.

60. Julia Dobson, ‘Nationality, Authenticity, Reflexivity: Kieslowski’s "Three Colours" Trilogy’, in Phil Powrie (ed.), French Cinema of the 1990s: Continuity and Difference (Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 234–45.

61. Emma Wilson, ‘Three Colours: Blue: Kieslowski, Colour and the Postmodern Subject’, Screen, 1998, 39, 4, 349–62.

62. Mireille Rosello, ‘Dissident Voices before the Revolution: Ridicule’, in Phil Powrie (ed.), French Cinema of the 1990s: Continuity and Difference (Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 81–91.

Part 9: Heritage Cinema: Jean-Paul Rappeneau (b. 1932), Claude Berri (1934–2009),
Bertrand Tavernier (b. 1941), Patrice Chéreau (b. 1944), Régis Wargnier (b. 1948), Agnès Merlet (b. 1959)

63. Julianne Pidduck, ‘Versions, Verse and Verve: Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s Cyrano de Bergerac (1990)’, in Susan Hayward and Ginette Vincendeau (eds.), French Film: Texts and Contexts, 2nd edn. (Routledge, 2000), pp. 281–96.

64. Phil Powrie, ‘Configurations of Melodrama: Nostalgia and Hysteria in Jean de Florette and Manon des sources’, French Studies, 1992, 46, 3, 296–305.

65. Richard Neupert, ‘Painterly Pastiche in Un dimanche à la campagne’, French Review, 1996, 70, 1, 56–64.

66. Ginette Vincendeau, ‘Unsettling Memories’, Sight and Sound, 1995, 5, 7, 30–2.

67. Brigitte Rollet, ‘Identity and Alterity in Indochine (Wargnier, 1992)’, in Phil Powrie (ed.), French Cinema in the 1990s: Continuity and Difference (Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 37–46.

68. Belén Vidal, ‘Feminist Historiographies and the Woman Artist’s Biopic: The Case of Artemisia’, Screen, 2007, 48, 1, 69–90.

Part 10: Cinéma du Look: Jean-Jacques Beineix (b. 1946), Jean-Pierre Jeunet (b. 1953), Luc Besson (b. 1959), Léos Carax (b. 1960)

69. Raphaël Bassan, ‘Three Neo-Baroque Directors’, in Susan Hayward and Phil Powrie (eds.), The Films of Luc Besson: Master of Spectacle (Manchester University Press), pp. 11–22.

70. Fredric Jameson, ‘Diva and French Socialism’, Signatures of the Visible, Social Text, 1982, 6, 114–19.

71. Laurent Jullier, ‘The Sinking of the Self: Freudian Hydraulic Patterns in Le Grand bleu’, in Susan Hayward and Phil Powrie (eds.), The Films of Luc Besson: Master of Spectacle (Manchester University Press), pp. 109–20.

72. Graeme Hayes, ‘Representation, Masculinity, Nation: The Crises of Les Amants du Pont-Neuf’, in Phil Powrie (ed.), French Cinema of the 1990s: Continuity and Difference (Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 199–210.

73. Elizabeth Ezra, ‘The Death of an Icon: Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain’, French Cultural Studies, 2004, 15, 3,
301–10.

Part 11: Banlieue cinema: Thomas Gilou (b. 1955), Ahmed Bouchaala (b. 1956), Karim Dridi (b. 1961),
Malik Chibane (b. 1964), Jean-François Richet (b. 1966), Mathieu Kassovitz (b. 1967)

74. Will Higbee, ‘The Return of the Political, or Designer Visions of Exclusion? The Case for Mathieu Kassovitz’s ‘fracture sociale’ Trilogy’, Studies in French Cinema, 2005, 5, 2, 123–36.

75. Carrie Tarr, ‘Ethnicity and Identity in the Cinéma de Banlieue’, in Phil Powrie (ed.), French Cinema in the 1990s: Continuity and Difference (Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 172–84.

Part 12: Agnès Varda (b. 1928) and Jean-Luc Godard (b. 1930) after the Nouvelle Vague

76. Susan Hayward, ‘Beyond the Gaze and into femme-filmécriture: Agnès Varda’s Sans toit ni loi (1985)’, in Susan Hayward and Ginette Vincendeau (eds.), French Film: Texts and Contexts, 2nd edn. (Routledge, 2000), pp. 269–80.

77. Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, ‘Magic and Wisdom in Two Portraits by Agnes Varda: Kung-Fu Master and Jane B. by
Agnes V’, Screen, 1993, 34, 4, 302–20.

78. Kate Ince, ‘Feminist Phenomenology and the Film World of Agnès Varda’, Hypatia, 2012, 10, 10,...