Nicole Beth Wallenbrock | Hostos Community College (original) (raw)
Papers by Nicole Beth Wallenbrock
JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, 2022
Chronique d'un été (Chronicle of a Summer, Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, 1961) fails to make a clea... more Chronique d'un été (Chronicle of a Summer, Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, 1961) fails to make a clear statement concerning the controversial Franco-Algerian War (1954-1962) and its associated torture, terrorism, and draft. This article explores the reasons for Chronique d'un été's ambivalence before unearthing Algérie, année zéro (Algeria, year zero, 1962), a virtually unknown documentary filmed two months after the war by an activist couple featured in Chronique d'un été, Marceline Loridan and Jean-Pierre Sergent. Using Jacques Derrida's term différance, I argue that the films overlap, contradict, and parallel each other to reveal the French Left's evolving relationship with Algeria.
REVIEWS “This is a brilliant and important book. The application of theory is exemplary, and - ev... more REVIEWS “This is a brilliant and important book. The application of theory is exemplary, and - ever attentive to production contexts, neo-colonial tensions and the subtleties of each film text - Wallenbrock engagingly reflects on the ambiguities of recent trans-historical representations of the Franco-Algerian War. A fascinating meditation on memory, violence and cinema.” – Guy Austin, Professor of French Studies, Newcastle University, UK “The Franco-Algerian War Through a Twenty-First Century Lens provides a rich analysis of contemporary filmic representations of the war and opens new avenues of inquiry into transnational processes of remembrance.” – Jennifer Howell, Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Illinois State University, USA “The centrality of cinema in the Franco-Algerian relationship called for Nicole Wallenbrock's The Franco-Algerian War through a Twenty-First Century Lens. This wonderful scholarly intervention offers a fresh and important look at cinema as a the most visible site in the contest and transmission of the colonial, anticolonial, and post-colonial histories in France and Algeria. Her ability to deploy rigorous historical research, rich and thoughtful analysis of film and filmmakers over the past 70 years, and a personal touch that comes through her sustained oral histories with many leading directors, puts her into a unique class of film scholars. This book illustrates how how film and cinema interacted with the past and how our present is informed by the media and art in this increasingly influential transnational arena.” – James Le Sueur, Samuel Clark Waugh Distinguished Professor of International Relations and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA.
The French Review, 2011
In 2006, Mon colonel was quietly released as part of a wave of Algerian War films. Its plot depen... more In 2006, Mon colonel was quietly released as part of a wave of Algerian War films. Its plot depends largely on cinematic flashback to deliver missing narrative exposition. However, the flashback proffers more than narrative—it additionally evokes the psychological flashback (repressed unpleasant memories from the past that interrupt the present), a symptom of PTSD. In this manner, the Algerian War of fifty years past resurfaces in the film as a once (collectively) repressed French memory.
French Politics, Culture & Society, 2018
Screening the Tortured Body, 2016
In the early twenty-first century, France very publicly confronted its past military policy of to... more In the early twenty-first century, France very publicly confronted its past military policy of torture during the Franco-Algerian War (1954–1962). While former generals spoke to the press (General Paul Ausseresses and General Jacques Massu), French veterans’ post-trauma stress disorder provoked millennial media interest. Florent Emil Siri’s 2007 film L’Ennemi Intime grapples with this new approach to the Franco-Algerian War; there are three torture sequences in which our protagonist, who begins as an anti-torture proponent, plays a vital, but vacillating role (he disrupts one torture session, tortures an Algerian man to death in the second, and in the third prevents a fellow sergeant from torturing himself). A study of the three scenes reveals France’s difficult negotiation in the millennium, sympathising with the torturer’s situation while conscious of the ethics and consequences of such heinous behaviour. While Marnia Lazreg’s thorough and innovative book Torture and the Twilight of Empire allows no concessions for French military crimes, in Waltzing with Bachir: Perpetrator Trauma and Cinema, Raya Morag finds such sympathetic torturer portrayals (in Israeli documentary films concerning the First and Second Intifadas) serve a greater social need and purpose. For this reason, the article sites both authors, revealing the very complicated nature of films concerning historical torture.
French Cultural Studies, 2015
This article traces the student-prostitute from its 2008 inception in the popular press, and foll... more This article traces the student-prostitute from its 2008 inception in the popular press, and follows its emergence on screen in three recent fiction films. Through close readings and historical contextualisation, I dissect the iconic figure: while the first French student-prostitute film Mes chères études exposes the economic desperation of students and the efficiency of the part-time work with a Marxist gloss, the films that follow, Elles and Jeune et jolie, diminish the students’ financial need. Conversely and increasingly we find students desiring sex with their clients perhaps more than money. As the films depict young, educated, French-speaking, future professionals who subtly approach clients via text messages and emails, we also find a nostalgic, nationalistic portrait that defends the age-old profession. In fact Sarkozy claimed in a 2002 Senate address that prostitution was once ‘traditional’, and largely French, while now 80 per cent of prostitutes are immigrants from Easte...
War in Film: Semotics and Conflict Related Sign Constructions on the Screen, 2022
French Politics, Culture, and Society, 2018
This article investigates three recent transnational documentaries. The films invoke the theoreti... more This article investigates three recent transnational documentaries. The films invoke the theoretical concept of the rhizome, as understood by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, for the works trouble the line between past and present, as well as empirical geography that seperates North Africa from France with the Meditteranean. In this way, the three works that study Algeria's founding and its historical memory can be regarded as experimental explorations of spatial and temporal concepts.
This article traces the student-prostitute from its 2008 inception in the popular press, and foll... more This article traces the student-prostitute from its 2008 inception in the popular press, and follows its emergence on screen in three recent fiction films. Through close readings and historical contextualisation, I dissect the iconic figure: while the first French student-prostitute film Mes chères études exposes the economic desperation of students and the efficiency of the part-time work with a Marxist gloss, the films that follow, Elles and Jeune et jolie, diminish the students' financial need. Conversely and increasingly we find students desiring sex with their clients perhaps more than money. As the films depict young, educated, French-speaking, future professionals who subtly approach clients via text messages and emails, we also find a nostalgic, nationalistic portrait that defends the age-old profession. In fact Sarkozy claimed in a 2002 Senate address that prostitution was once 'traditional', and largely French, while now 80 per cent of prostitutes are immigrants from Eastern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. The films also incorporate the demands of the growing sex-worker movement; the students work autonomously and by choice; and the violence they endure (which the films depict with diminishing frequency) does not cause any obvious psychological or physical harm.
The French review, Jan 1, 2011
Books by Nicole Beth Wallenbrock
"The Franco-Algerian War through a 21st Century Lens", 2020
The Franco-Algerian War through a Twenty-First Century Lens, 2020
REVIEWS “This is a brilliant and important book. The application of theory is exemplary, and - ev... more REVIEWS
“This is a brilliant and important book. The application of theory is exemplary, and - ever attentive to production contexts, neo-colonial tensions and the subtleties of each film text - Wallenbrock engagingly reflects on the ambiguities of recent trans-historical representations of the Franco-Algerian War. A fascinating meditation on memory, violence and cinema.” – Guy Austin, Professor of French Studies, Newcastle University, UK
“The Franco-Algerian War Through a Twenty-First Century Lens provides a rich analysis of contemporary filmic representations of the war and opens new avenues of inquiry into transnational processes of remembrance.” – Jennifer Howell, Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Illinois State University, USA
“The centrality of cinema in the Franco-Algerian relationship called for Nicole Wallenbrock's The Franco-Algerian War through a Twenty-First Century Lens. This wonderful scholarly intervention offers a fresh and important look at cinema as a the most visible site in the contest and transmission of the colonial, anticolonial, and post-colonial histories in France and Algeria. Her ability to deploy rigorous historical research, rich and thoughtful analysis of film and filmmakers over the past 70 years, and a personal touch that comes through her sustained oral histories with many leading directors, puts her into a unique class of film scholars. This book illustrates how how film and cinema interacted with the past and how our present is informed by the media and art in this increasingly influential transnational arena.” – James Le Sueur, Samuel Clark Waugh Distinguished Professor of International Relations and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA.
Edited Books by Nicole Beth Wallenbrock
co-ed. with Nicole Wallenbrock
JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, 2022
Chronique d'un été (Chronicle of a Summer, Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, 1961) fails to make a clea... more Chronique d'un été (Chronicle of a Summer, Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, 1961) fails to make a clear statement concerning the controversial Franco-Algerian War (1954-1962) and its associated torture, terrorism, and draft. This article explores the reasons for Chronique d'un été's ambivalence before unearthing Algérie, année zéro (Algeria, year zero, 1962), a virtually unknown documentary filmed two months after the war by an activist couple featured in Chronique d'un été, Marceline Loridan and Jean-Pierre Sergent. Using Jacques Derrida's term différance, I argue that the films overlap, contradict, and parallel each other to reveal the French Left's evolving relationship with Algeria.
REVIEWS “This is a brilliant and important book. The application of theory is exemplary, and - ev... more REVIEWS “This is a brilliant and important book. The application of theory is exemplary, and - ever attentive to production contexts, neo-colonial tensions and the subtleties of each film text - Wallenbrock engagingly reflects on the ambiguities of recent trans-historical representations of the Franco-Algerian War. A fascinating meditation on memory, violence and cinema.” – Guy Austin, Professor of French Studies, Newcastle University, UK “The Franco-Algerian War Through a Twenty-First Century Lens provides a rich analysis of contemporary filmic representations of the war and opens new avenues of inquiry into transnational processes of remembrance.” – Jennifer Howell, Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Illinois State University, USA “The centrality of cinema in the Franco-Algerian relationship called for Nicole Wallenbrock's The Franco-Algerian War through a Twenty-First Century Lens. This wonderful scholarly intervention offers a fresh and important look at cinema as a the most visible site in the contest and transmission of the colonial, anticolonial, and post-colonial histories in France and Algeria. Her ability to deploy rigorous historical research, rich and thoughtful analysis of film and filmmakers over the past 70 years, and a personal touch that comes through her sustained oral histories with many leading directors, puts her into a unique class of film scholars. This book illustrates how how film and cinema interacted with the past and how our present is informed by the media and art in this increasingly influential transnational arena.” – James Le Sueur, Samuel Clark Waugh Distinguished Professor of International Relations and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA.
The French Review, 2011
In 2006, Mon colonel was quietly released as part of a wave of Algerian War films. Its plot depen... more In 2006, Mon colonel was quietly released as part of a wave of Algerian War films. Its plot depends largely on cinematic flashback to deliver missing narrative exposition. However, the flashback proffers more than narrative—it additionally evokes the psychological flashback (repressed unpleasant memories from the past that interrupt the present), a symptom of PTSD. In this manner, the Algerian War of fifty years past resurfaces in the film as a once (collectively) repressed French memory.
French Politics, Culture & Society, 2018
Screening the Tortured Body, 2016
In the early twenty-first century, France very publicly confronted its past military policy of to... more In the early twenty-first century, France very publicly confronted its past military policy of torture during the Franco-Algerian War (1954–1962). While former generals spoke to the press (General Paul Ausseresses and General Jacques Massu), French veterans’ post-trauma stress disorder provoked millennial media interest. Florent Emil Siri’s 2007 film L’Ennemi Intime grapples with this new approach to the Franco-Algerian War; there are three torture sequences in which our protagonist, who begins as an anti-torture proponent, plays a vital, but vacillating role (he disrupts one torture session, tortures an Algerian man to death in the second, and in the third prevents a fellow sergeant from torturing himself). A study of the three scenes reveals France’s difficult negotiation in the millennium, sympathising with the torturer’s situation while conscious of the ethics and consequences of such heinous behaviour. While Marnia Lazreg’s thorough and innovative book Torture and the Twilight of Empire allows no concessions for French military crimes, in Waltzing with Bachir: Perpetrator Trauma and Cinema, Raya Morag finds such sympathetic torturer portrayals (in Israeli documentary films concerning the First and Second Intifadas) serve a greater social need and purpose. For this reason, the article sites both authors, revealing the very complicated nature of films concerning historical torture.
French Cultural Studies, 2015
This article traces the student-prostitute from its 2008 inception in the popular press, and foll... more This article traces the student-prostitute from its 2008 inception in the popular press, and follows its emergence on screen in three recent fiction films. Through close readings and historical contextualisation, I dissect the iconic figure: while the first French student-prostitute film Mes chères études exposes the economic desperation of students and the efficiency of the part-time work with a Marxist gloss, the films that follow, Elles and Jeune et jolie, diminish the students’ financial need. Conversely and increasingly we find students desiring sex with their clients perhaps more than money. As the films depict young, educated, French-speaking, future professionals who subtly approach clients via text messages and emails, we also find a nostalgic, nationalistic portrait that defends the age-old profession. In fact Sarkozy claimed in a 2002 Senate address that prostitution was once ‘traditional’, and largely French, while now 80 per cent of prostitutes are immigrants from Easte...
War in Film: Semotics and Conflict Related Sign Constructions on the Screen, 2022
French Politics, Culture, and Society, 2018
This article investigates three recent transnational documentaries. The films invoke the theoreti... more This article investigates three recent transnational documentaries. The films invoke the theoretical concept of the rhizome, as understood by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, for the works trouble the line between past and present, as well as empirical geography that seperates North Africa from France with the Meditteranean. In this way, the three works that study Algeria's founding and its historical memory can be regarded as experimental explorations of spatial and temporal concepts.
This article traces the student-prostitute from its 2008 inception in the popular press, and foll... more This article traces the student-prostitute from its 2008 inception in the popular press, and follows its emergence on screen in three recent fiction films. Through close readings and historical contextualisation, I dissect the iconic figure: while the first French student-prostitute film Mes chères études exposes the economic desperation of students and the efficiency of the part-time work with a Marxist gloss, the films that follow, Elles and Jeune et jolie, diminish the students' financial need. Conversely and increasingly we find students desiring sex with their clients perhaps more than money. As the films depict young, educated, French-speaking, future professionals who subtly approach clients via text messages and emails, we also find a nostalgic, nationalistic portrait that defends the age-old profession. In fact Sarkozy claimed in a 2002 Senate address that prostitution was once 'traditional', and largely French, while now 80 per cent of prostitutes are immigrants from Eastern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. The films also incorporate the demands of the growing sex-worker movement; the students work autonomously and by choice; and the violence they endure (which the films depict with diminishing frequency) does not cause any obvious psychological or physical harm.
The French review, Jan 1, 2011
"The Franco-Algerian War through a 21st Century Lens", 2020
The Franco-Algerian War through a Twenty-First Century Lens, 2020
REVIEWS “This is a brilliant and important book. The application of theory is exemplary, and - ev... more REVIEWS
“This is a brilliant and important book. The application of theory is exemplary, and - ever attentive to production contexts, neo-colonial tensions and the subtleties of each film text - Wallenbrock engagingly reflects on the ambiguities of recent trans-historical representations of the Franco-Algerian War. A fascinating meditation on memory, violence and cinema.” – Guy Austin, Professor of French Studies, Newcastle University, UK
“The Franco-Algerian War Through a Twenty-First Century Lens provides a rich analysis of contemporary filmic representations of the war and opens new avenues of inquiry into transnational processes of remembrance.” – Jennifer Howell, Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Illinois State University, USA
“The centrality of cinema in the Franco-Algerian relationship called for Nicole Wallenbrock's The Franco-Algerian War through a Twenty-First Century Lens. This wonderful scholarly intervention offers a fresh and important look at cinema as a the most visible site in the contest and transmission of the colonial, anticolonial, and post-colonial histories in France and Algeria. Her ability to deploy rigorous historical research, rich and thoughtful analysis of film and filmmakers over the past 70 years, and a personal touch that comes through her sustained oral histories with many leading directors, puts her into a unique class of film scholars. This book illustrates how how film and cinema interacted with the past and how our present is informed by the media and art in this increasingly influential transnational arena.” – James Le Sueur, Samuel Clark Waugh Distinguished Professor of International Relations and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA.