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French Cinema and the Great War. Remembrance and Representation

2019; Oxford University Press; Volume: 33; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/fh/crz034

1477-4542

Leen Engelen,

French Historical and Cultural Studies

The book French cinema and the Great War. Remembrance and Representation, edited by Marcelline Block and Barry Nevin, presents a set of close-readings of French World War I films. The volume covers approximately the whole era between the beginning of the war and the centenary. Chronologically almost every decade—the 1940s being curiously absent—is covered by one or two films: the war years (Une page de gloire, 1915), the 1930s (Le cinéma au service de l’histoire, 1935 and La grande illusion, 1937); the 1960s and 1970s (Thomas l’imposteur, 1965; Le Roi de cœur, 1966; and La victoire en chantant, 1976) and the 1980s and 1990s (La vie et rien d’autre, 1989; Capitaine Conan, 1996). The most recent productions are Jean-Pierre Jeunets Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004) and Christian Carions Joyeux Noël (2005). The divergent theoretical, methodological and didactic approaches of the authors make the book a varied and interesting read for those interested in Film Studies, History or Francophone Studies. Several films are discussed in different chapters from different angles. Especially La grande illusion—a film that is definitely worthy of a multi-faceted analysis—is spoiled with no less than three different chapters dedicated to it. A real asset of the volume is that several of the authors offer a gendered reading of the films, tapping into the renewed interest in Gender and War Studies. This is especially true for Clémentine Tholas-Disset’s contribution on Une page de gloire, Karen A. Ritzenhoff’s text on Un long dimanche de fiançailles and Marcelline Block’s chapter on La vie et rien d’autre and Joyeux Noël. In addition to this, several authors look at the different representations (or invisibility) of disability, class differences and class consciousness and colonial troops, thus bringing these crucial and too often understudied or neglected issues to the foreground. I would like to cite here Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns’ chapter on Thomas l’imposteur and Le Roi de coeur, Julie M. Powell’s as well as Frederic Leveziel’s contribution on La grande illusion and certainly also Henri-Simon Blanc-Hoàng’s chapter on World War I’s silenced voices in the films of Bertrand Tavernier and Jean-Pierre Jeunet.