French National Cinema

This revised and updated version of a successful and established text, "French National Cinema" offers a thorough and much-needed historical overview of French cinema at a time when French cinema continues to grow in popularity with films such as "Amelie" and "Belleville Rendez-vous." Brought wholly up to date to include political and social developments in French cinema in the 1990s, its fresh approach and groundbreaking new writing on the subject offers a much further understanding of French cinema and its relationship with the French national identity. New subjects covered include: - The GATT negotiations of 1993 - French cinema's increasing dependence on investment from television - the rise of the multiplex - the implications of the introduction of digital technology. Ideal for all students of cinema, film studies and film history, this book traces the eco-history of the French film and its key figures and movements, and it places them in their wider political and cultural context. Contents: Introduction: Defining the 'national' of a country's cinematographic production 1. A Brief Ecohistory of France's Cinema Industry 1895-2003 2. Magical moments of Musical Silence: French cinema's classical age 1895-1929 3. From Clarity to Obscurity: French cinema's age of modernism 1930-1958 4. From Ideology to Narcissism: French cinema's age of the postmodern 1958-1991 5. Towards a Multiplicity of Voices: French cinema's age of the postmodern, part two 1992-2004 Conclusion