Sylvie Blum-Reid. Traveling in French Cinema. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. Anne V. Cirella-Urrutia Huston-Tillotson University, avcurrutia@htu.edu (original) (raw)

Cinéphile: French Language and Culture through Film by Kerri Conditto

The Modern Language Journal, 2008

The MLJ reviews books, monographs, computer software, and materials that (a) present results of research in-and methods of-foreign and second language teaching and learning; (b) are devoted to matters of general interest to members of the profession; (c) are intended primarily for use as textbooks or instructional aids in classrooms where foreign and second languages, literatures, and cultures are taught; (d) convey information from other disciplines that relates directly to foreign and second language teaching and learning. Reviews not solicited by the MLJ can neither be accepted nor returned. Books and materials that are not reviewed in the MLJ cannot be returned to the publisher. Responses should be typed with double spacing and submitted electronically online at our new Manuscript Central address: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mlj.

Where Is France in French Cinema, 1976-2013?

Using ArcGIS, this article maps the narrative locations of French cinema's box office successes and César du meilleur film winners against a self-consciously international version of prestige, the French submission for best foreign language film at the Oscars from 1976 (when the Césars began) to 2012. Mapping domestic consumption and prestige against the for-American-consumption vision of prestige and possible box office appeal will identify the settings that are associated with domestic and international locations of Frenchness. Do films that succeed at the box office connect themselves to France's main population centers—Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Lille—or to less-populated and economically vibrant regions, as with Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis (2008) in Bergues? To what extent do prestige films seek out marginalized areas in which to set their stories, as in the Paris banlieues of La Haine (1996) or Sète in La Graine et le mullet (2008)? Do the films that France proposes to the Oscar voters address an imagined American preference for one part of France—Paris—over another, or do they turn to other, less globally-integrated locations? Where are the overlaps among these three categories? And where are the empty spaces that neither box office nor prestige address? This article will be a spatial history, drawing on Franco Moretti's ‘distant reading’ approach to groups of films to demonstrate the critical potential for mapping narrative locations as a way to conceive of the multiple nations—in this case France—that cinema imagines for its domestic and international audiences.

[2015] Major Stars, the Heritage Film, and Patrimonial Values in Contemporary French Cinema

in A Companion to Contemporary French Cinema, Alistair Fox, Michel Marie, Raphaëlle Moine, Hilary Radner (dir.), Wiley Blackwell, pp. 314-332., 2015

The heritage genre enables major French stars, because of its associations with spectacle and identity, to confront a context that is extremely competitive and destabilizing, owing to the domination of American blockbusters, the conversion of theaters to digital, and the bad health of the French economy. Often bringing prestige, performance, international visibility, together in a single role both critical and commercial success together in a single role, stars who achieve renown in heritage fictions are better able than any others to exercise a certain form of resistance: to the contemporary crisis, to the chasm between auteur cinema and commercial cinema, to the disappearance of the classical star-system, and to the supremacy of Hollywood. This chapter shows how and why, and within what limits, this nostalgic return to the past allows major stars to resolve the contradiction inherent in French cinema, both within France, and in the eyes of the rest of the world.

The Cosmopolitanization of French Cinema

Literature Aesthetics, 2011

Ulrich Beck defines cosmopolitanization as internal globalization, globalization from within national societies 1 , a process that comes from the growth of transnational social spaces, social fields and networks. Living in a transnational world, individuals, according to Victor Roudometof, can assume an open, encompassing attitude or a closed, defensive posture 2 , they can adopt a cosmopolitan perspective or take a protective, local stance which can be very influential in many social and cultural areas. Cosmopolitans and locals occupy the opposite ends of a continuum consisting of various forms of attachment to and support of a locality, a state, a local culture, and they diverge with respect to the degree of economic, cultural and institutional protectionism they espouse. However, Roudometof insists on the necessity to regard these two alternatives not as discontinuous variables but rather as forming a single continuum. In addition, it is possible for an individual or an organization to combine both global and local forms of actions, which is what Roudometof calls "Glocalized cosmopolitanism". This article will examine how the French film industry with its state-based support system has evolved throughout its history to combine global and local initiatives in order to develop and foster diversity in cinema inside and outside France. In France, the birthplace of cinema, cinema enjoys a special status: it is considered not only an art form and an industry but it is also thought to be a cultural force in the world. "Cinema matters more to the French than it does in most European countries". 3 It has been suggested that cinema and nationalism are associated, that it is no coincidence that cinema was