French Film: Texts and Contexts

by SusanHayward (Editor), Ginette Vincendeau (Editor)

• New

  Paperback
  1999

  $37.21

  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.

• Used

  Paperback
  1990

  $3.25

  French films have always been popular with English-speaking audiences, but surprisingly few critical studies are available in English in single-volume form. This new look at classic French films, from the 1920s to the 1980s, provides detailed analyses of central texts within the canon of French cinema. Whether unavoidable 'monuments' like Gance's Napoleon , critical cult films like Resanis's Hiroshima, mon amour and Godard's Le Mepris , popular classics such as Carne's Les Enfants du paradis , or Tati's es Vacances de M. Hulot, or recent works of the calibre of Rohmer's Les Nuits de la pleine lune or Varda's Sans toit ni loi , they have all become part of an essential French repertory. The essays in this collection investigate the different ways in which these and other films textually inscribe and rework a variety of other cultural and historical texts. The diversity of disciplines - history, literary studies, semiotics, psychoanalytic - that form the background of the contributors' work guarantees such a variety of approach, making this an informative and challenging study for students of French cinema and cultural studies, as well as for lovers of French film.