FR2106 Cinema in France: From Modernism to the Postmodern

Terms 1-2

Convenor: Professor James Williams

Assessment : Essay (1,500-2,000 words) 30%, 2-Hour Exam 60%, 4 Pre-Block Moodle Tests 10%, Formative Piece (0%)   

Overview

This course examines key examples of French cinema from 1920 to the present day.  In contrast to mainstream cinema, which broadly supports and confirms the dominant artistic norms, the films studied have, at different historical moments and in various ways, attempted to break with tradition and to challenge the prevailing forms, structures and conventions of the genre. From this perspective the course will focus, in turn, on the distinct contributions of the avant-garde and surrealist films of the 1920s, war films of the 1930s and 1940s, the New Wave which began in the late 1950s, and its postmodern legacy which still prevails today. The films for discussion, which can all be viewed in Founders, will include the following: L’Etoile de mer (Man Ray, 1924), Entr’Acte  (René Clair, 1929), La Grande Illusion  (Jean Renoir, 1937), Le Crime de Monsieur Lange (Jean Renoir, 1936), La Bête humaine (Jean Renoir, 1938), Les 400 coups (François Truffaut, 1959), Vivre Sa Vie (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962), Jean-Jacques Beineix, Diva (1981), Bruno Dumont, L’humanité (1999), Claire Denis, Vendredi Soir (2002), Laurent Cantet, L’Emploi du Temps (2001), and Abdellatif Kechiche, La Graine et le Mulet (2008).

Key Primary Bibliography

Phil Powrie and Keith Reader, French Cinema: A Student’s Guide (London: Arnold, 2002).

Secondary Literature: General, Theoretical, Introductory

Crisp, Colin, The Classic French Cinema 1930–1960 (London: I. B. Tauris / Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997).

Hayward, Susan, French National Cinema (London and New York: Routledge, 1993).

Monaco, James, How to Read a Film: The Art, Technology, Language, History and Theory of Film and Media (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1981).

Vanoye, Francis and Anne Goliot-Lété, Précis d’analyse filmique (Paris: Nathan, ‘Université’, 1992).