French and Francophone Languages and Literatures

An important re-examination of early film history, translated from the French for the first time.

For information on Interlibrary loan, see: http://guides.library.stonybrook.edu/ILL

North Africa has captured the French imagination for centuries and shaped it in ways the French themselves have yet to acknowledge. The advent of cinema allowed artists and propagandists alike to exploit a new medium in their romanticized depictions of France's imperial mission in Algeria and Morocco. The films of the 1920s expressed a cautious optimism about the prospect of co-operation between Europeans and Muslims - with Europeans dominant. By the 1930s, however, attitudes toward indigenous North Africans had hardened. In response to demands for liberal reform in Algeria, French settlers appealed to racial solidarity and protection of white womanhood. The films of this period warned against the perils of miscegenation and portrayed the Foreign Legion and the settlers as the defenders of white, European civilization's frontiers.

" " "The French New Wave: An Artistic School" is a lively introduction to this critical moment in film history by one of the world's leading scholars on the New Wave. Provides a concise account of the French New Wave by one of the world's leading film scholars. Outlines the essential traits of the New Wave and defines it as a school that changed international film history forever. Includes a chronology of major political and cultural events of the New Wave, black-and-white images, and an extensive bibliography.

"To a great extent, the story of French filmmaking is the story of moviemaking. From the earliest flickering images of the late nineteenth century as well as the many important technical innovations - which in France sometimes preceded, and often paralleled, the work of Edison and early British, German, and Russian inventors and artists - through the silent era, the Surrealist influence, the Nazi Occupation, the glories of the New Wave, on into the 1990s and beyond, Remi Lanzoni examines a large number of the world's most beloved films against the backdrop of their often turbulent times." "A final chapter considers the increasingly competitive business dynamic of contemporary French filmmaking as well as French television, the digital and high-definition revolution, and all the latest artistic and popular trends. This sweeping history is further enhanced by some ninety stills and other artwork, including rare, archival photographs of the personalities who have created, and still do, a grand international tradition."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved