This book opens up the history of twentieth-century French cinema from the silent era to the present day by exploring the key role of gender and sexual politics. A much-needed sequel to Berg's bestselling Gender and German Cinema, the volume tackles such questions as:? What role did the female voice play when sound cinema was first developed?? How have film genres and movements been shaped by gender and sexual politics? ? How does gender intersect with factors of race, class, ethnic and national identity? The contributors also throw into relief broad issues such as the evolution of film in the context of 20C French social, political and cultural history.Bringing together original essays by French, British and American scholars, the collection fully covers the development of French cinema. It addresses the work of individual auteurs, the French star system, and film genres and movements such as Dada and Surrealism, the New Wave and the New New Wave. It also focuses on film narratives in which issues of gender are particularly pertinent.
The volume, which features illustrations, a filmography and bibliography, will be one of the standard handbooks in French cultural/film studies for some time to come.
Acknowledgements Introduction Alex Hughes (University of Birmingham), James S. Williams (University of Kent) 1. Bodies Cut and Dissolved: Dada and Surrealist Film Elza Adamowicz (Queen Mary College, University of London) 2. Diva in the Spotlight: Music Hall to Cinema Kelley Conway (University of Wisconsin-Madison) 3. Mon cul est intersexual?: Arletty's Performance of Gender Keith Reader (University of Glasgow) 4. For Our Eyes Only: Body and Sexuality in Reverse Motion in the Films of Jean Cocteau James S. Williams (University of Kent) 5. Setting the Agenders: Simone Signoret - the Pre-Feminist Star Body Susan Hayward (University of Exeter) 6. Gender, Modernism and Mass Culture in the New Wave Geneviève Sellier (Université de Caen) 7. Austistic Masculinity in Jean-Pierre Melville's Crime Thrillers Ginette Vincendeau (University of Warwick) 8. Gender in the French Fantasy Film 1965-95 Guy Austin (University of Sheffield) 9. Going Through the Motions: Unconscious Optics and Corporal Resistance in Miéville and Godard's France/tour/detour/deux/enfants Michael Witt (University of Roehampton) 10. The God, the King, the Fool and ...: Anamorphosing the Films of Beineix Phil Powrie (University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne) 11. AIDS-Video: Representing the Body in Guibert's La Pudeur ou l'impudeur Alex Hughes (University of Birmingham) 12. Gender and Sexuality in New New Wave Cinema Dina Sherzer (University of Texas at Austin) 13. Running out of Place: Gender; Space and Crisis in Ferreira Barbosa's Les Gens Normaux n'ont rien d'exceptionnel and Lvovsky's Oublie-moi Julia Dobson (University of Wolverhampton) 14. Identification and Female Friendship in Contemporary French Film Emma Wilson (University of Cambridge)
