French Culture Through Film

Catalog description

This course presents a survey of important cultural and historical moments in France with a special emphasis on the ways in which these moments are represented in film. The course has a dual focus: 1.) a chronological and historical overview of major moments in 20th and 21st century French history as they have been represented, imagined and presented through the selected films and 2.) the artistic and cinematic movements and concepts that inform our understanding of these films. Beginning with WWI, the historical trajectory outlined by the course will cover the Interwar period, the Occupation and Liberation, the consumer culture of France in 1950s, France as a former colonial power and the Algerian war, France in the 60s, May 1968, France in the 1970s and les trente glorieuses, Mitterrand's 1980s, and Immigration and French identity. We will grapple with these historical moments as they have been filtered through the lens of cinema. Our attention will remain focused both on the historical time periods in which the films of the course were made as well as the moments they are representing. Our approach to the filmic corpus of the course will be one that seeks to understand and situate the films within the broader context of the aesthetic movements that have characterized film both within France and in world cinema. Movements and moments such as Poetic Realism, Neorealism, the French New Wave, Left-Bank filmmaking, cinema vérité, documentary filmmaking and le ciné du Look will serve as an artistic backdrop and provide a framework for understanding the cinematic choices of the directors studied. No prior coursework in film is required; FR 138 will introduce students to the special vocabulary and building block concepts that allow them to deeper comprehend and analyze film on a formal basis. Concepts covered include mise en scène, editing, approaches to narrative, dialogue and soundtrack, lighting, set pieces, characterization, camerawork, CGI special effects, and the technology of film making. Students can expect to come away with a set of tools to analyze not only other French films but also visual texts in general.