Evil Women in the Post-war French Cinema

Taking a text-led approach, with the emphasis on more recent popular films, Studying French Cinema is directed at non-specialists such as students of French, film studies, and the general reader with an interest in post-war French cinema. Each of the chapters focuses on one or more key films from the ground-breaking films of the nouvelle vague (Les 400 coups, 1959) to contemporary documentary (Etre et avoir, 2002) and puts them into their relevant contexts. Depending on the individual film, these include explorations of childhood, adolescence and coming of age (Les 400 coups, L'Argent de poche); auteur ideology and individual style (the films of Jean-Luc Godard and Agnes Varda); the representation of recent French history (Lacombe Lucien and Au revoir les enfants); transnational production practices (Le Pacte des loups); and popular cinema, comedy and gender issues (e.g. Le Diner de cons). Each film is embedded in its cultural and political context. Together, the historical discussions provide an overview of post-war French history to the present. Useful suggestions are made as to studies of related films, both those discussed within the book and outside.

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New Beginnings in the Post-War Years

Georges Auric ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190607777.003.0007 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 133-156

Author(s):

Colin Roust

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Film Festivals ◽

World War ◽

French Cinema ◽

Incidental Music ◽

New Beginnings ◽

Post War ◽

French Tradition ◽

The 1960S ◽

The U.S

After World War II, Auric enjoyed a privileged position in the French musical scene, with numerous ballets and scores of incidental music. He was also by this time the leading composer for the French cinema; he remains the only person to have won music prizes at both the Cannes and Venice film festivals. From the 1940s through the 1960s, he composed dozens of films in the French “tradition of quality,” but also for British and American films and for international co-productions. He also was elected to the Administrative Council at SACEM, ultimately serving as President for three decades. In the late 1950s, he was a defendant in Hirshon v. United Artists, a case that clarified two sections of the U.S. Copyright Code, and he was also the principal lobbyist on behalf of the Loi Escarra, the first modern copyright law in France.

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André Bazin, Film Critic for Le Parisien libéré (1944–1958): An Enlightened Defender of French Cinema

Paragraph ◽

10.3366/para.2013.0081 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 36 (1) ◽

pp. 118-132 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Geneviève Sellier

Keyword(s):

Gender Ideology ◽

Contemporary Society ◽

French Cinema ◽

Daily Newspaper ◽

Key Points ◽

Andre Bazin ◽

Post War ◽

Day Plot ◽

Film Critic

This article examines a neglected dimension of Bazin's work, namely his writings for the daily newspaper Le Parisien libéré. Four key points emerge from this corpus. First, Bazin goes beyond the film-reviewing norms of the day (plot summary and evaluation of actors' performances) to analyse the intentions and achievements of the film-makers. Second, Bazin foregrounds the capacity of cinema to address the concerns of contemporary society. Third, as a result, he ascribes a particular value to films that actively engage with the new social realities of post-war France. Four, Bazin remains blind to the misogynistic dimension of post-war French cinema, with its tendency to culpabilize women for the national disgrace of the Occupation. Ultimately, Bazin's newspaper reviewing represents a more socially aware vision of cinema than that promoted by more specialized cinema journals, yet his criticism remains caught within the gender ideology of his time.

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