Translating “l’esprit Canal” into comedy screenplays: Canal+’s role in the development of French comedy film trends

This article retraces the trajectories of three selected groups of comedy actors, screenwriters, and directors discovered on Canal+ in the context of the evolution of the media group’s policies for comedy development practices for cinema. The article focuses on artists and television shows that served as platforms for entry into the cinema, including “Les Nuls,” “Les Robin des Bois,” Jamel Debbouze and Philippe Lacheau’s “La Bande à Fifi.”

Les Philosophes de Palissot (1760) : la querelle et les passions épistolaires qui s’ensuivirent

Les Philosophes, a French comedy by Palissot, a protégé of the royal minister Choiseul, was produced in Paris in May 1760 with the intention of discrediting Diderot and the Encyclopaedists. That summer it became a huge success, mainly due to the performance of an actor walking on stage on all fours (intended to denigrate Rousseau’s reputation). The purpose of the present article is to show, through the study of some of the lampoons and letters exchanged at that time, how the affair eventually tarnished the reputation of both parties, and how only the clever Voltaire emerged victorious from this heated debate.

Looking at French Comedy from the 1550s-1660s from the Perspective of Gender Studies

French comedies from the late 16th century and early 17th century revolve around games of love-making which are systematically likened to acts of war. A compact web of metaphors draws a parallel between the conquest of maidens and the conquest of cities. This metaphor of the conquest of a city which provides the narrative basis of the plays also displays, at an ideological level, a fundamentally misogynous world view. This study proposes to analyse this fundamental schema and explain the changes it undergoes. Indeed, as we progress through the 17th century, the metaphor of the town siege can be turned around and some of the lead female characters tend to turn into conquerors. The theatre of comedy thus takes the edge off its misogynous side. In Corneille’s La Veuve and Le Menteur, in Claveret’s L’Esprit fort or in Rotrou’s La Célimène the relationships between male and female characters develop in a way that is gradually more favourable the the latter. Gender studies can bring fresh light to the study of French comedy from the 1550s-1660s. This theatre of the beginning of the modern age highlights both the foundations of our patriarchal society and the first signs of its shattering.

Stratégies discursives et communicationnelles de persuasion dans les genres journalistiques d'opinion: le cas des critiques de cinéma

Discursive and communicative strategies of persuasion in opinion forming media: the case of film reviewsThis study aims at analysing the discourse as a way of using language for specific purposes. On the basis of a corpus consisting of forty reviews of the French comedy Intouchables (2011) selected from various film magazines and web pages, the author offers a reflection on the nature and functions of the genre “film review”. Thus, different invariant elements of the mentioned genre can be established in the light of discursive and communicative strategies whose persuasive dimension is connected both with the presence of informative and evaluative elements about the film and the situation of the participants. Thanks to the described strategies, activating various kinds of hidden and connotative meaning i.e. implications, presuppositions, cultural associations, the journalist contributes to the co-creation of human perception.