116-041 French Cinema Since the New Wave

116-133 French I: Cultural Perspectives and 116-134 French I: Language in Context II or equivalent. European studies students wishing to enrol in this subject would normally have completed first-year European studies, see Prerequisites.

Themes covered in this subject will include the New Wave in its social context; 'auteur' theory; cinematographic language; representations of social change; representations of an historical obsession (WWII); the postmodern French thriller ('polar'). Students will be responsible for viewing the films in the corpus in their own time. On completion of the subject students should demonstrate familiarity with the practices and theoretical concerns of New Wave and post-New Wave film-makers in France; be able to analyse the social and cultural processes represented in selected films from the period studied; demonstrate an awareness of postmodern film criticism; communicate the results of their research and analysis in both oral and written forms. The subject will be taught in French.

One 25-minute class paper subsequently written up and totalling 1000 words, one 1000-word film analysis, one 2000-word essay.

• J Forbes, The Cinema in France after the New Wave. Indiana UP, 1994.
• G Austin, Contemporary French Cinema: An Introduction. NY, 1996.
• S Hayward, & G Vincendeau (eds), French Film: Text and Contexts. Routledge, 1990.
• S Hayward, French National Cinema. Routledge, 1993.
• P Powrie, French Cinema in the 1980s: Nostalgia and the Crisis of Masculinity. Clarendon Press, 1997.
• P Powrie, French Cinema in the 1990s: Continuity and Difference. OUP, 1999.