FF:FAVz086 Contemporary French Cinema - Course Information
FAVz086 Contemporary French Cinema
Faculty of ArtsAutumn 2020
- Extent and Intensity
- 2/0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
- Teacher(s)
- Dr. Marion Hallet (lecturer), Mgr. Šárka Jelínek Gmiterková, Ph.D. (deputy)
Mgr. Martin Kos, Ph.D. (assistant)
Mgr. Kateřina Šrámková (assistant)
Mgr. Šárka Jelínek Gmiterková, Ph.D. (alternate examiner) - Guaranteed by
- Mgr. Šárka Jelínek Gmiterková, Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Patrycja Astrid Twardowska
Supplier department: Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts - Timetable
- Mon 12. 10. 10:00–11:50 VP, 14:00–15:50 VP, Wed 14. 10. 9:00–10:50 VP, 12:00–13:50 VP, Thu 15. 10. 12:00–13:50 VP, 16:00–17:50 VP
- Prerequisites
- There are none.
- Course Enrolment Limitations
- The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
- fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
- there are 18 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
- Course objectives
- This module explores the cultural economy, aesthetic codes and ideological values in contemporary French cinema since 2000. Looking equally at popular genres and auteur cinema, the module aims to give an understanding of major trends in contemporary French film and its relationship to French society, under three broad headings:
• Politics and identity (auteur cinema’s exploration of ethnic, class, gender and sexual identity).
• Heritage, comedy and stardom (how mainstream popular genres and star personas address the nation’s relationship to its past and to contemporary societal change).
• Testing the limits (a reflection on what ‘French cinema’ is, in terms of linguistic, generic and national hybridity, and transgression in the so-called ‘extreme’ cinema). - Learning outcomes
- After completing the course, students will:
- be able to identify key trends, personalities and genres in contemporary French cinema
- be able to discuss contemporary French cinema through topics of identity, politics, heritage and its limits
- know crucial French films of the past decade. - Syllabus
- Lecture 1.
- Introduction: what/where is French cinema today? The ‘cultural exception’ and responses to #MeToo
- Film to watch: Elle (Paul Verhoeven, 2016, 130 minutes)
- Further recommendation:
- • Baise-moi (Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi, 2000)
- • A ma sœur ! (Catherine Breillat, 2001)
- Lecture 2.
- Politics and sexuality
- Film to watch: 120 battements par minute (Robin Campillo, 2017, 140 minutes)
- Further recommendation:
- • L’Inconnu du Lac (Alain Guiraudie, 2013)
- • Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (Céline Sciamma, 2019)
- Lecture 3.
- The comedy of ethnic integration
- Film to watch: Intouchables (Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, 2011)
- Further recommendation:
- • Qu’est-ce qu’on a fait au bon Dieu ? (Philippe de Chauveron, 2014)
- • Tout simplement noir (Jean-Pascal Zadi and John Wax, 2020)
- Lecture 4.
- Stardom, theatricality and popular comedy
- Films to watch: Potiche (François Ozon, 2010, 103 minutes) + Huit Femmes (Ozon, 2002, 111 minutes)
- Lecture 5.
- The new cinéma de banlieue
- Film to watch: Bande de filles (Céline Sciamma, 2014, 112 minutes)
- Further recommendation:
- • Divines (Houda Benyamina, 2016)
- • Les Misérables (Ladj Ly, 2019)
- Lecture 6.
- Auteur cinema and the legacy of the New Wave
- Film to watch: Les Plages d’Agnès (Agnès Varda, 2008, 110 minutes)
- Further recommendation:
- Les Chansons d’amour (Christophe Honoré, 2007)
- Literature
- required literature
- • Tim Palmer (2011). ‘The Contemporary French film ecosystem’, in: Brutal Intimacy. Analyzing Contemporary French Cinema, 1-13, Middletown CT: Wesleyan University Press.
- • Muriel Rouyer (2013). 'The Strauss-Kahn affair and the culture of privacy: mistreating and misrepresenting women in the French public sphere’, Women’s Studies International Forum, 41, pp. 187-196.
- Mary Harrod and Phil Powrie (2018). New directions in contemporary French comedies: from nation, sex and class to ethnicity, community and the vagaries of the postmodern, Studies in French Cinema, 18:1, pp. 1-17.
- Ginette Vincendeau (2011). A love-hate relationship: French cinema and boulevard theatre, Sight and Sound, 2011, http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49739
- Naomi Vogt (2017). Divine girlhoods. Filming young women in France’s banlieues’, Cineaste, Summer, pp. 38-42.
- recommended literature
- Gaspar Noé (1999). I’m Happy Some People Walk Out During My Film, The Guardian, 12 March, http://www.theguardian.com/film/1999/mar/12/features3.
- • Nick Rees-Roberts (2008). ‘Queer Sexuality Aids and Loss’, in: French Queer Cinema, Edinburgh University Press, pp. 89-127.
- • Michael J. Bosia (2009). AIDS and postcolonial politics, acting up on science and immigration in France, French Politics, Culture & Society, 27:1, pp.69-90.
- • Martin O’Shaughnessy’s (2007). The New face of political cinema. Commitment in French Film since 1995, New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books.
- • David Pettersen (2016). Transnational blackface, neo-minstrelsy and the ‘French Eddie Murphy’ in Intouchables, Modern & Contemporary France, 24:1, pp. 51-69.
- • Rosello, Mireille (1998). ‘Stereotypes and iterativity’, in: Declining the stereotype: Ethnicity and representation in French cultures, Dartmouth, pp. 21-40.
- Marguerite Chabrol (2015). ‘The Return of theatricality in French cinema of the 1990s: a new imbrication of comedy and melodrama’, in: Alistair Fox, Michel Marie, Raphaëlle Moine and Hilary Radner (eds.), A Companion to contemporary French cinema, Wiley-
- • Emma Wilson (2017). ‘Scenes of Hurt and Rapture: Céline Sciamma’s Girlhood’, Film Quarterly, 70:3, pp. 10-22.
- • Will Higbee (2018). ‘Beyond Ethnicity or a return to type? Bande de filles/Girlhood and the Politics of Blackness in Contemporary French Cinema’, in: Kathryn Kleppinger and Laura Reeck (eds.), Post-Migratory Cultures in Postcolonial France, Liverpool U
- • Kelly Conway (2010). Varda at work: Les Plages d’Agnès, Studies in French Cinema, 10:2, pp. 125-138.
- • Carrie Tarr with Brigitte Rollet (2001). ‘Introduction’ and ‘Conclusion’, in: Cinema and the second sex, women’s filmmaking in France in the 1980s and 1990s, London and New York: Continuum.
- • Mireille Rosello (2001). Agnès Varda’s Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse: portrait of the artist as an old lady, Studies in French Cinema, 7:1, pp. 29-37.
- Teaching methods
- This module consists of six lectures, all of them live and online on MS Teams platform.
Students are required to read all the items from the obligatory reading list and to watch the films attached to each lecture before the module starts. All of the required materials will be provided.
SCHEDULE:
Lecture 1 - Monday October 12th - 10:00 - 11:50
Lecture 2 - Monday October 12th - 14:00 - 15:50
Lecture 3 - Wednesday October 14th - 9:00 - 10:50
Lecture 4 - Wednesday October 14th - 12:00 - 13:50
Lecture 5 - Thursday October 15th - 12:00 - 13:50
Lecture 6 - Thursday October 15th - 16:00 - 17:50 - Assessment methods
- Apart from the compulsory attendance students will have to pass two test. First test is preliminary and it will take place just before the start of the first lecture. With two questions, the test will check the knowledge of the required items from the reading list for the first three lesson. The other test is final, consisting of three questions testing both students' acquaintance with the reading list as well as their knowledge and skills gained throughout the course itself. Ten points maximum can be gathered from both of the test; five points are the necessary minimum in order to pass the course successfully.
- Language of instruction
- English
- Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
- Study Materials
The course is taught only once. - Teacher's information
- Dr. Marion Hallet holds a PhD in Film Studies from King’s College London, where she researched the star image of Austrian-born actress Romy Schneider. She previously completed a BA and a MA in Art History and Archaeology in Belgium (UCL) before moving to Britain where she gained a MA in Film Studies at Oxford Brookes University. In addition to stardom her research interests include trans-European history and culture, French and Hollywood popular cinema, feminism, and gender representation in films. She teaches French cinema at the University of Namur. For information regarding organisation and student evaluation of the course please contact either Martin Kos (martin.kos@mail.muni.cz) or Kateřina Váchová (katerina.vach@mail.muni.cz).
- Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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