French Film

French Film: Text and Contexts looks at classic French films, from the 1930s to the 1990s, providing detailed analyses of 22 major landmarks in French cinema. Embracing classic thrillers such as Renoir’s Le Crime de Monsieur Lange, popular comedies like Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot, or New Wave masterpieces like Godard’s A Bout de Souffle, contributors employ a variety of methods of textual analysis to investigate the different ways in which these and other films textually inscribe and rework a variety of other cultural and historical texts. Approaching from a variety of disciplines – history, literary studies, semiotics, psychoanalysis – contributors examine films within the context of french film and literature, Hollywood, and the profound changes in French society taking place through the twentieth century.
This revised and updated second edition includes: – new studies of controversial classics such as Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai and Betrand Blier’s Les Valseuses – articles on acclaimed 90s films Nikita, Cyrano de Bergerac, and La Haine – fully revised introduction and bibliography Dudley Andrew, University of Iowa Jacques Aumont, University of Paris, France Jill Forbes, University of Bristol Richard Dyer, University of Warwick Christopher Faulkner

Author Biography

Susan Hayward, Ginette Vincendeau