French Cinema : From Its Beginnings to the Present

ILLUSTRATIONS 11(6) INTRODUCTION 17(6) CHAPTER 1: THE INVENTION OF MOTION PICTURES AND THE SILENT ERA OF FILM 23(30) France at the Turn of the Twentieth Century 23(2) The Invention of the Cinématographe 25(7) Georges Méliès and the Adventure of the Film Studio 32(4) Growth of a National Cinema: Charles Pathé and Léon Gaumont 36(3) The Invention of Genres: Louis Feuillade and Max Linder 39(6) Avant-garde Cinema, French Impressionism, and Surrealism: Louis Delluc, Abel Gance, Marcel L'Herbier, Luis Buñuel, and René Clair 45(8) CHAPTER 2: THE GOLDEN AGE OF FRENCH CINEMA 53(50) The Style of the 1930's 53(2) The "Talkies" 55(7) French Cinema and Economic Recession 62(5) Verbal Cinema or Filmed Language? Marcel Pagnol 67(6) Beyond Filmed Theater: Toward Poetic Realism 73(2) Artists and Masters of Poetic Realism: Jean Gabin, Arletty, Marcel Carné, Jean Renoir, and Jean Vigo 75(25) Cinematography and the Poetics of Images 100(3) CHAPTER 3: FRENCH CINEMA OF THE OCCUPATION 103(40) France in 1940 104(2) The Exodus of French Cinema Celebrities 106(5) French Cinema and Vichy 111(4) Propaganda and Censorship: The Case of Henri-Georges Clouzot 115(9) Working Conditions under the Occupation: Marcel Carné 124(12) Resistance and Liberation 136(7) CHAPTER 4: THE POSTWAR ERA 143(52) The Fourth Republic and Postwar France 144(4) The Blum-Byrnes Agreements 148(2) The Prestige of French Cinema or Cinema of Prestige?, Jean Cocteau 150(7) A Certain Tradition de Qualité 157(10) Comedy à la française: Claude Autant-Lara 167(3) Film Noir or film d'ambiance: Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jacques Becker, and René Clément 170(13) Toward a New Cinema: Robert Bresson, Jacques Becker, and René Clément 183(12) CHAPTER 5: THE YEARS OF THE FRENCH NEW WAVE 195(50) France during and after the Events of 1958 196(5) The Signs of Change: Louis Malle 201(5) Les cahiers du cinéma and the Auteur Theory 206(4) The Emergence of the New Wave: Claude Chabrol, François Truffaut, Alain Resnais, Jean-Luc Godard, and Agnès Varda 210(29) The Return of Commercial Movie Successes 239(6) CHAPTER 6: FRENCH CINEMA OF THE 1970's 245(53) May '68: A New Cultural Era 246(3) Economic Assessment of French Cinema 249(3) The "Scandal" of the Cinémathèque Française 252(1) Political Cinema as a New Genre: Louis Malle, Joseph Losey, and Costa-Gavras 253(9) The Last Days of the French Polar: Jean-Pierre Melville and Henri Verneuil 262(8) The Humanists' School: Claude Sautet, Francois Truffaut, and Eric Rohmer 270(16) The Storytellers: Bertrand Blier and Bertrand Tavernier 286(12) CHAPTER 7: THE CINEMA OF THE 1980's 298(51) France in the 1980's 299(5) French Cinema of the 1980's: Over One Thousand Films Produced 304(2) Transformations in the French Film Industry 306(4) A New Partner: Television 310(3) The Old School of Filmmakers: Francois Truffaut, Bertrand Tavernier, Bertrand Blier, and Maurice Pialat 313(13) The Super Productions: Claude Berri and Jean-Jacques Annaud 326(12) New Directors for a New Generation: Jean-Jacques Beineix and Luc Besson 338(8) The Rebirth of Popular Comedies: Coline Serreau and Claude Zidi 346(3) CHAPTER 8: THE LAST DECADE AND BEYOND 349(70) French Society in the 1990's 350(1) The Improving Health of French Cinema 351(3) A Unique Financial-Aid System 354(4) French Television 358(3) French Cinema Abroad 361(4) New Artists, New Creators: Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro 365(11) The Epics: Régis Wargnier and Claude Berri 376(6) Period Dramas: Patrice Chereau, Alain Corneau, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, and Patrice Leconte 382(18) The Return of Comedies at the Box Office: Jean-Marie Poiré and Francis Veber 400(5) The New French Cinema-Le Jeune Cinéma: Mathieu Kassovitz and Eric Zonca 405(9) The Digital Revolution and the High-Definition System: Pitof 414(5) ABBREVIATIONS 419(2) APPENDIX 421(13) NOTES 434(34) SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 468(7) INDEX 475