Archive for March 2023

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[Commlist] New book: Late-colonial French Cinema: Filming the Algerian War of Independence

Fri Mar 10 09:06:08 GMT 2023


Mani King Sharpe is pleased to announce the publication of mynew book <https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-late-colonial-french-cinema.html>,/*Late-colonial French Cinema: Filming the Algerian War of Independence*/, which has just been published by Edinburgh University Press, as part of the Traditions in World Cinema Series.

More information about the book can be found inthis<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey04WbH8cr8>three-minute interview, posted on YouTube, inthis<https://nrftsjournal.org/cinema-at-the-end-of-empire/>discussion that I conducted with Alan O’Leary for The New Review of Film and Television Studies, inthis<https://euppublishingblog.com/2023/02/13/5-lesser-known-examples-of-late-colonial-french-cinema/>blog post, entitled ‘5 lesser-known examples of late-colonial French cinema’, orthis <https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/pub/media/resources/9781474414234_Late_colonial_French_cinema.pdf> site, where you can download the Introduction of the book for free.

This book may be of*interest*to scholars writing on: decolonisation, war, French cultural theory, and the politics/ethics of French cinema more generally, including the French New Wave.

*Summary: *

Deploying the term ‘late-colonial’ to describe a body of largely French films made during, and in response to, the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962), this book revolves around one key question – what is late-colonial French cinema? – generating two answers. Firstly, I argue that late-colonial cinema represents a formally and thematically important, yet unappreciated tendency in French cinema; one that has largely been overshadowed by a scholarly focus on the French New Wave. Secondly, I contend that whilst late-colonial French cinema cannot be seen as a coherent cinematic movement, school of filmmaking, or genre, it can be seen as a coherent ethical trend, with many of the fifteen central case studies explored in/Late-colonial French Cinem/a filtering the Algerian War of Independence through a discourse of ‘redemptive pacifism’.

*Key features: *

  * Defines late-colonial cinema as trans-generic ‘body’ of films, bound
    up with various cinematic traditions and tendencies, including the
    French New Wave, film noir, the World War Two combat film,
    observational documentaries, Soviet Montage cinema, parallel cinema,
    and settler cinema
  * Combines textual analysis of fifteen case studies with contextual
    analysis of late-colonial French culture, politics and society
  * Deploys a different critical approach in each chapter. These include
    contemporary film studies, star studies, documentary studies, memory
    studies, studies of the voice, gender studies and the critique of
    everyday life, amongst others
*Chapters: *
*
*
Introduction

*Part I: Soldiers*

  * Conscripts and reservists, privatisation and redemption
      o Case studies:/Adieu Philippine/(Rozier 1963),/La Belle
        vie/(Enrico 1964)
  * Stardom, atrocity, and the beauty of violence
      o Case studies:/L'Insoumis/(Cavalier 1964),/Les Centurions/(Robson
        1964)
  * Militarised masculinity and its losses
      o Case studies:/Les Distractions/(Dupont 1960),/Le Feu
        follet/(Malle 1963)

*Part II: Others*

  * Ex-Resistants, conscientious objectors and the ethics of memory
      o Case studies:/La Dénonciation/(Doniol-Valcroze, 1961),/Tu ne
        tueras point/(Autant-Lara 1963)
  * Female citizens and guilt displacement
      o Case studies:/Le Retour/(Goldenberg 1959),/Paris nous
        appartient/(Rivette 1961), /Secteur postal 89098/(Durand 1961)
  * The War as seen from Algeria by the settlers
      o Case studies:/Les Oliviers de la justice/(Blue and Pélégri
        1962),/Au Biseau des baisers/(Gilles and Sator 1962)
  * The War as spoken by Algerians and the Left
      o Case studies:/Octobre à Paris/(Panijel 1962),/J'ai 8 ans/(Le
        Masson, Poliakoff and Vautier 1961)

Conclusion


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