French Cinema From Its Beginnings to the Present

To a large extent, the story of French filmmaking is the story of moviemaking. From the earliest flickering images of the late nineteenth century through the silent era, Surrealist influences, the Nazi Occupation, the glories of the New Wave, the rebirth of the industry in the 1990s with the exception culturelle, and the present, Rémi Lanzoni examines a considerable number of the world's most beloved films. Building upon his 2004 best-selling edition, the second edition of French Cinema maintains the chronological analysis, factual reliability, ease of use, and accessible prose, while at once concentrating more on the current generation of female directors, mainstream productions such as The Artist and The Intouchables, and the emergence of minority filmmakers (Beur cinema).

Rémi Fournier Lanzoni earned his M.A. in French from the University of South Carolina at Columbia, USA, and his PhD in French from Florida State University, USA. He also earned a second PhD in Italian from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. He has written two books, French Cinema: From its Beginnings to Present (Continuum, 2003) and Comedy Italian Style: The Golden Age of Italian Film Comedies (Continuum, 2009) as well as several articles on Italian cinema.

List of Illustrations

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Invention of Motion Pictures and the Silent Era of Film

Chapter 2: The Golden Age of French Cinema

Chapter 3: French Cinema of the Occupation

Chapter 4: The Postwar Era

Chapter 5: The Years of the French New Wave

Chapter 6: French Cinema of the 1970s

Chapter 7: The Cinema of the 1980s

Chapter 8: The Last Decade and Beyond

Chapter 9: Post-Millennium and New Movements

Abbreviations

Appendix

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index