This book provides a scholarly yet accessible account of the work of Marcel Carne, one of the great directors of the classical French cinema and the key figure behind the poetic realist film movement of the 1930s. His films, a number of which were made in collaboration with the poet-turned-scriptwriter, Jacques Prevert, include such well known works as Le Quai des brumes, Le Jour se leve and Les Enfants du paradis. As the first book to be written on Carne for a number of years, it offers a fresh perspective on his cinema, particularly through a re-examination of his post-war work - although...

Many years before Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve, the French cinema produced a host of glamorous female stars designed to rival their Hollywood counterparts. Bathed in soft light, discussed adoringly in fan magazines and shown wearing the latest fashions, these 'cinematic stars' emerged in opposition to France's traditional stage-based stardom, while remaining, through the roles they played and the looks they sported, a distinctly French phenomenon.

This book examines how these stars influenced the narratives and look of their films, contributed to defining the period's new,...

This book provides a scholarly yet accessible account of the work of Marcel Carne, one of the great directors of the classical French cinema and the key figure behind the poetic realist film movement of the 1930s. His films, a number of which were made in collaboration with the poet-turned-scriptwriter, Jacques Prevert, include such well known works as Le quai des brumes, Le jour se leve and Les enfants du paradis. As the first book to be written on Carne for a number of years, it offers a fresh perspective on his cinema, particularly through a re-examination of his post-war work - although...