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French Cinema and Society from 1990 to the Present

Explore the relationship between film and society in France since the 1990s. Analyze the state of the French nation and film industry. Discuss films like "Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain" and their impact on French culture.

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French Cinema and Society from 1990 to the Present

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  1. STATES OF THE NATION: FRENCH CINEMA AND SOCIETY FROM 1990 TO THE PRESENT Welcome to the module! Tuesdays 4-6pm, H 4.44 Dr. Mary Harrod m.g.m.harrod@warwick.ac.uk Office Hours: Tuesdays 2-4 and Fridays 1-; room: H4.28

  2. Week 1: States of the Nation/States of the Industry Organisation of the Session • Practical matters • Rationale of the course • What is the relationship between film and society in France? • Overview of the state of the French nation since the 1990s • Overview of the state of the French film industry over the same period • Introduction to Jeunet and Le Fabuleuxdestind’AméliePoulain • Discussion of film and analyses of it • Questions prepared in advance (group work) • Reactions to Clifton Moore reading and analysis of an extract in relation to it

  3. Cinema as a Barometer of the Nation? The ‘state of the nation film’ – see John Hill, British Cinema in the 1980s (Clarendon Press, 1999). E.g. • Engaged with contemporary social reality • Dealing with ‘gritty’ social issues • Filmed in a broadly realist style in terms of mise-en-scène in particular: location shooting, naturalistic lighting, a ‘vernacular’ style of acting.

  4. France since the Early-Mid 1990s: Some Key Shifts • Growing wealth divide • Resentment at the lower end aggravated by the 2007-8 global financial crisis, prompting questions about the nation’s relatively Left-wing politics.

  5. France since the Early-Mid 1990s: Some Key Shifts2 • Increased resentment of France’s large immigrant population • Witness successes by the Right-wing Le Front National in successive elections; problems exacerbated by extremist terrorists of late. • This is alongside ongoing and growing fears about globalisation and secondarily Europeanisation: a sense of national identity threatened from within and without, in turn contributing to...

  6. Apocalyptic narratives about the decline of France as a nation. • Present since the end of Empire, these have gathered force e.g. • La France qui tombe, Nicolas Bavarez2004 • Quandla France disparaît du monde!, Nicolas Tenzer2008 • L’Identitémalheureuse, Alain Finkielkraut2013 • Le Suicide français, Eric Zemmour, 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV4IK7yC56Y • Linked also to Europe’s decline as a world power. France since the Early-Mid 1990s: Some Key Shifts3

  7. France since the Early-Mid 1990s: Some Key Shifts4 • Changes in the private sphere, related to women’s increased access to greater equality. • In a traditionally patriarchal, Catholic France, women made up 46% of the work force in 2005 (http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/document.asp?ref_id=EEC05).

  8. The Paradoxes of French Cinema ‘a vigorous industry but also a subsidized artform; a field with intellectual ambitions that also courts widespread popularity; a craft extending from idiosyncratic experiments to commercial operations; a medium identified with a local audience yet one that also allows France to export itself on-screen around the globe, even to America’ Tim Palmer, ‘The Contemporary French Film Ecosystem’ (see further reading suggestions), p. 2.

  9. Total French film production 100% French-financed productions • 97 63 • 145 111 • 2005 187 126 • 2009 182 137 Palmer, p. 8 See also CNC France for up-to-date film statistics http://www.cnc.fr/web/fr;jsessionid=52FEAA02FFD92CDDE36E4F4F16EFDFEE.liferay

  10. Resistance to the Perceived Acceleration in Commercialising Globalised French Film Culture Darren Waldron and Isabelle Vanderscheldenhave argued suspicious attitudes towards popular cinema have only been exacerbated in recent years by a French critical tendency among cinephiliccritics to equate so-called commercial filmmaking with ‘a multifaceted crisis’ linked to inflated production costs and shorter cinema runs. E.g. Jean-Michel Frodon in articles in the auteurist-cinephilic journal Cahiers du cinéma from 2005 onwards. Waldron, D. and I. Vanderschelden. 2007. ‘Introduction.’ In D. Waldron and I. Vanderschelden(eds), France at the Flicks: Trends inContemporary French Popular Cinema. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp.1-15, p. 8. Yet such positioning has a long history – see for instance Vanessa R. Schwartz, It’s so French: Hollywood, Paris and the Making of Cosmopolitan Film Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.

  11. French films in top 20 at French box office in 2009 • Le Petit Nicolas/ Little Nicholas (Laurent Tirard, France/ Belgium) • Lol (Laughing Out Loud) (Lisa Azuelos) • Arthur et la vengeance de Maltazard/ Arthur and the Great Adventure (Luc Besson) • Coco/ Coco Before Chanel (Anne Fontaine) • Neuilly samère(Gabriel Laferrière) • OSS 117 Rio ne répond plus/ OSS 117 – Lost in Rio (Michel Hazanavicius) • Data sourced from CNC France

  12. For top domestic hits historicallyseealso: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls057849414/

  13. Some Recent Big-budget Successes: Heritage Bio-pics 2007 2014 2009

  14. And Some Auteur Films

  15. Amélieas extending the notion of the comédied’auteur? This term is coined by RaphaëlleMoine, ‘Reconfigurations génériques de la comédiedans le cinémafrançaiscontemporain,’ in Le Cinémafrançais face aux genres, Paris: Association française de recherche sur le cinéma, 2005, pp. 214-223. Cf. Jeunet’s earlier work e.g. Delicatessen (Jeunet and Caro, 1991) [extract – opening]

  16. Reception of Amélie: a Divided Picture • Global box office blockbuster (8.5 million French spectators, over $33m taken in US) • BUT frequentlycriticallyderidede.g. Serge Kaganski, ‘ «Amélie», pas jolie ,’ Libération, 31 May 2001 • ‘Jeunet est sous l'emprise d'une telle volonté de maîtrise et de contrôle absolu de ses images que ses films ne respirent plus, que son monde paraît être filmé sous cloche. Amélie Poulain fait ainsi penser à ces boules de neige enfermant les monuments de Paris que l'on vend dans les boutiques de souvenirs kitsch. • […]

  17. KaganskiContinued […] Que vois-je dans le Montmartre de Jeunet? Des Français aux patronymes qui fleurent bon le terroir. Je vois aussi un beur désarabisé qui s'appelle Lucien. Mais où sont les Antillais, les Maghrébins, les Turcs, les Chinois, les Pakis, etc? Où sont ceux qui vivent une sexualité différente? Où sont les Parisiens qui peuplent la capitale en 1997 (année où est censé se passer le film)?’

  18. Amélie: Romance or Realism? For Michelle Scatton-Tessier, Le Fabuleuxdestind’AméliePoulain is ‘well anchored in its socio-historical and cinematic period, exploiting the same issues of loneliness and isolation found in recent French new social cinema’. In ‘Le Petisme, Flirting with the Sordid in Le Fabuleuxdestind’AméliePoulain.’ Studies in French Cinema 4, no.3 (2004): 197-207, p. 197.

  19. Photographs by Robert Doisneau (1912-94) Retro Aesthetic Influences on Amelie Poetic Realist films of the 1930s and 40s e.g. Le jour se lève(Carné, 1939)

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