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.
Introduction Susan Hayward and Ginette Vincendeau . the name of the father:Marcel Pagnol's 'trilogy' Marius (1931), Fanny (1932), Cesar (1936) Ginette Vincendeau 2.Paris, Arizona; or The Redemption of Difference: Jean Renoir's Le Crime de Monsieur Lange (1935) Christopher Faulkner 3.The fleeing gaze: The fleeing gaze: Jean Renoir's La Bete humaine (1938) Michele Lagny 4. Poetic Realism as psychoanalytical ideological operation:Marcel Carne's Le Jour se leve (1939) Maureen Turim 5. Beneath the despair, the show goes on:Marcel Carne's Les Enfants du paradis (1943-45) Jean-Pierre Jeancolas 6. The sacramentof writing: Robert Bresson's Le Journal d'un cure de campagne (1951) Keith Reader 7. A breath of sea air: Jacques Tati's Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1952) Pierre Sorlin 8. Casques d'or, casquettes, a cask of aging wine: Jacques Becker's Casque d'or (1952) Dudley Andrew 9. No place for homosexuality: Marcel Carne's L'Air de Paris (1954) IRichard Dryer 10, The script of delinquency: Francois Truffaut's Les 400 coups (1959) Anne Gillian 11. 'It really makes you sick!': Jean-Luc Godard's About the souffle (1959) Michel Marie 12. The fall of the gods: Jean-Luc Godard's Le Mepris (1963) Jacques Aumont 13. Mise-en-scence degree zero: Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samourai (1967) Colin McAtrhur 14. Eye for Irony: Eric Rohmer's Ma nuit chez Maud (1969) Norman King 15. Sex,Politics and Popular Culture: Bernard Blier's Les Valseuses (1973) Jill Forbes 16.The anti-carnival of collaboration: Louis Malle's acombe Lucien (1974) H.R. Kedward 17. Maternal The legacies: Diane Kurys' Coup de foudre (1983) Carrie Tarr 18. Representing the sexual impasse: Eric Rohmer's Les nuits de la pleine lune (1984) Berenice Reynaud 19. Beyond the gaze and into femme-filmecriture: Agnes Varda's Sans toit ni loi (1985) Susan Hayward 20. Versions, verse and verve: Jean-Paul Rappeneau's Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) Julianne Pidduck 21. Recycled woman and the postmodern aesthetic: Luc Besson's Nikita (1990) Susan Hayward 22. Designs on the banlieue: Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine (1995) Ginette Vincendeau Selected bilbliography on French Cinema Index
