This book of essays is the first to explore French films in the 1990s. It focuses on continuity with the 1980s in terms of genres and preoccupations such as definitions of a national cinema, the heritage film, gay/lesbian issues, and ethnic issues. It also explores key differences between the two decades in film and examines the issues of community and political reflection.

French film in the 1980s might have lacked the invention of the New Wave but gritty police thrillers and nostalgic costume-dramas such as Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources brought French cinema to a wider audience than ever before.
This landmark study is not merely a history of French film in the 1980s, but offers a set of critical essays on the crisis of masculinity in contemporary French culture, and its interrelationship with nostalgia. After a brief overview both of the crisis in the French film industry during the 1980s, and of the socio-political crisis of masculinity in the...

Despite the long history of music in film, its serious academic study is still a relatively recent development and therefore comprises a limited body of work. The contributors to this book, drawn from both film studies and musicology, attempt to rectify this oversight by investigating film music from the vibrant, productive, politically charged period before World War II. They apply a variety of methodologies--including archival work, close readings, political histories, and style comparison--to this under explored field.

This volume is the first to examine, in either French or English, the films of Jean-Jacques Beineix, often seen as the best example of the 1980s cinema du look, with cult films, such as Diva and Betty Blue (37 2 le matin)
. After an introduction which places Beineix in the context of the 1980s and the arguments centering on a postmodern cinema, the volume devotes a chapter to each of Beineix's feature films, including the film which marked his return to feature film making after a break of a decade, Mortel Transfert (2001). Prefaced by an excellent foreword by the director himself, which...

A collection of original essays focusing on masculinity and film, particularly the representation of European masculinity. Spilt into four sections--stars, class and race, fathers and bodies--areas covered include the Carmen films, Yiddish cinema, romantic comedy and beur cinema.

An in-depth look at some of the best and most influential French films of all time, The Cinema of France contains 24 essays, each on an individual film. The book features works from the silent period and poetic realism, through the stylistic developments of the New Wave, and up to more contemporary challenging films, from directors such as Abel Gance, Jean Renoir, Marcel Carne, Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais, Agnes Varda and Luc Besson. Set in chronological order, The Cinema of France provides an illuminating history of this essential national cinema and...

This fascinating collection looks at the career and films of Luc Besson, one of the most acclaimed figures in international cinema. Contributions have been assembled from all over the world, and their different approaches reflect this geographical diversity. Films covered range from Besson's first feature, La Dernier Combat, to the international blockbusters The Fifth Element and Joan of Arc. The essays range from looking at costume design to musical scores, and the final chapter offers a transcript of a previously unpublished interview with the man himself. He is the only French director to...

This book is the first major study of a French silent cinema star. It focuses on Pierre Batcheff, a prominent popular cinema star in the 1920s, the French Valentino, best-known to modern audiences for his role as the protagonist of the avant-garde film classic Un chien andalou. Unlike other stars, he was linked to intellectual circles, especially the Surrealists. The book places Batcheff in the context of 1920s popular cinema, with specific reference to male stars of the period. It analyses the tensions he exemplifies between the 'popular' and the 'intellectual' during the 1920s, as cinema -...

This fascinating collection looks at the career and films of Luc Besson, one of the most acclaimed figures in international cinema. Contributions have been assembled from all over the world, and their different approaches reflect this geographical diversity. Films covered range from Besson's first feature, La Dernier Combat, to the international blockbusters The Fifth Element and Joan of Arc. The essays range from looking at costume design to musical scores, and the final chapter offers a transcript of a previously unpublished interview with the man himself.
He is the only French director...

Of all European cinema, the most important is French. France annually produces more films than any other European nation, and throughout its history it has been the key competitor to Hollywood; it is Cannes that matters most after the Oscars. Moreover, the study of film as an academic discipline emerged from France during the 1950s, and was shaped by the work of French intellectuals during the 1960s and 1970s. And in the broad field of international scholarship that is Film Studies, after Hollywood, there are more scholars working in French cinema than any other national cinema.

As...