Studying French Cinema by Isabelle Vanderschelden (review)
2015; Volume: 45; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1548-9922
Autores Tópico(s)French Historical and Cultural Studies
ResumoStudying French Cinema Vanderschelden, Isabelle. New York: Columbia University Press: April 2013. Pp.256. ISBN: 978-1-906733-15-5. $27.50 (paperback); ISBN: 978-1-906733-16-2 $85.00 (hardcover).In ten chapters on ten cineastes, Studying French Cinema offers in-context studies ... of contemporary French films, all of which inform history of French cinema and its diversity (7). Its fifteen films are not necessarily best known since 1950s; rather, they show facet of French culture, such as education, history, representation of French society in film, representation of stereotypes, national and personal identity and immigration (20). Vanderschelden's work differs from other recent texts in genres and production types she has chosen as well as her combination of French textual analysis and British cultural studies.From Truffaut, Jean Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Agnes Varda, and Louis Malle, Claude Miller, Nicolas Philibert, Francis Weber, Christophe Gans, and Ismael Ferroukhi, deroulement is more or less historical, moving from 1959 (Les 400 Coups) 2004 (Le Grand Voyage). Chapter titles point broader contextualizations. For example, chapter Francois Truffaut: An Auteur's Representation of Childhood describes his childhood during wartime Occupation leading cinema becoming his life (and title of his 1975 book) and subject matter of films studied here, Les 400 coups and L'Argent de poche. After noting Truffaut's importance in cinema history, Vanderschelden offers synopses of films and contexts of their production. The childhood theme gets thorough analysis, followed by filmic concerns: style, use of space, camerawork, sound and music, narrative and time, and editing. Fier conclusion charts Truffaut's evolution as he moves from his auteurist approach a more independent and accessible cinema.Godard's trajectory after French New Wave with A Bout de souffle and Pierrot le fou, is shown challenge the established post-war cinematic conventions reinvent film practices of 1960s (47). After offering synopses of two films Vanderschelden broadens her scope characters, narrative constructions, editing, language, and recurrent themes in early Godard films. Her conclusion is a Godardesque non-conclusion about his constant, ever-shifting search to answer seminal questions of what cinema really is... (69).New Wave Legacy and French Auteur looks at Claude Chabrol's film, Le Boucher. A case study that illustrates his oeuvre, Chabrol's masterpiece is used here discuss cultural context of rural France. Vanderschelden focuses on mise-en-scene and narrative construction. She underscores Chabrol's use of multiple points of view, edits manipulated create distance between characters and audience, color motifs, and dramatic effects through contrasts and abrupt changes. Le Boucher stands as a clear example of Chabrol's authorial signature: psychological approach suspense and a structured, implacable construction (89). Le Boucher, she concludes, can be studied all by itself as a masterpiece, as part of Flelene cycle, or as an iconic example of what auteur cinema is (90).Social Realism and Agnes Varda's Cinecriture sets framework for a long, hard look at Sans toit ni loi. Varda is introduced as a woman artist. Hers is only film by a female director in this volume, which Vanderschelden attributes limitations of space and Carrie Tarr's comprehensive 2002 study (French Cinema and Second Sex). I find space limits and an alternate, separate space for women's work unconvincing as a rationale for including only one woman (or any other historically underrepresented group): better not make excuses. Such would be message of recent Busson and Gayet documentary, Cineast(e)s (2013). As chapter demonstrates, Varda's work belongs among innovative cinematic post-1950 French all-stars. …
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