Module Overview

France is not only the birthplace of cinema and a major international force in mainstream and European film-festival circuits; in some instances, it has reaped enviable critical and commercial success abroad, especially in America (Le Jour se lève, 1939; Le Cinquième Élément, 1997; Amélie, 2001). Most importantly, owing to France’s rich (and often traumatic) history and the country’s importance to modern film theory and criticism, French cinema provides a unique window onto various debates concerning the medium of film itself, such as authorial vision, the relationship between film and history, and the politics of film style. This module will explore some of the reasons why French cinema has retained a universal appeal and has also exerted a palpable influence on both film aesthetics and theory.

This module explores how French cinema has positioned audiences at various points in time. Each unit of the module focuses on a key film from important periods in French history and/or France’s film industry, such as the creation of the cinématographe in turn-of-the-century Paris, the transition to sound, the rise of fascism in Europe, the German Occupation of France and the collapse of the country’s empire. Examples include George Meliès experimental science-fiction (Un Voyage dans la lune, 1903), impressionist cinema (e.g. Epstein’s Coeur fidèle, 1923), colonial films intended to commemorate France’s conquest of Algeria (Jacques Feyder’s Le Grand Jeu, 1934), ground-breaking films by New Wave critics-turned-directors (Truffaut’s Les 400 coups, 1959) as well as the rise of the cinéma du look in the 1980s and contemporary drifts towards documentary (Être et avoir, 2002) and romantic comedies (Populaire, 2012).

Depending on the individual film, approaches to film analysis include: explorations of childhood and gender (Truffaut’s Les 400 coups, 1958); auteur ideology (Renoir’s La Grande illusion, 1937) and individual style (the films of Jean-Luc Godard), feminist filmmaking (Agnès Varda’s Cléo de 5 à 7); retrospective portrayals of recent French history (Louis Malle’s Au revoir les enfants, 1987); transnational production practices (Jean Renoir’s The Golden Coach, 1952); and how popular cinema addresses tensions regarding class, gender and ethnicity (e.g. Intouchables, 2011; Bande de filles, 2014). Each film is situated in its technological, cultural and political contexts in order to generate in-class discussions regarding French film production from its beginnings to the present.

There are no prerequisites for this module; it builds on the critical and analytic skills that students will have developed in French and Francophone Studies modules in years 1 and 2. These modules and World Cinema may be an advantage as students who have successfully completed those will either have some knowledge of cultural representation and/or of critical approaches to the study of film as a cultural product.