French Film
Texts and Contexts
Edited by Susan Hayward and Ginette Vincendeau
Average rating:
0 | rating | ![]() |
0 | rating | ![]() |
0 | rating | ![]() |
0 | rating | ![]() |
Your rating: -
Book Presentation:
The second edition of this innovative textbook brings together leading scholars to provide detailed analyses of twenty-two key films within the canon of French cinema, from the 1920s to the 1990s. Films discussed include:
* masterpieces such as Renoir's La Bete Humaine and Carne's Les Enfants du Paradis
* popular classics such as Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot and Ma Nuit chez Maud
* landmarks of the New Wave such as Les 400 Coups and A bout de souffle
* important films of the 1990s such as Nikita and La Haine
The films are considered in relation to such issues as the history of French cinema, the social and cultural contexts of their production and reception, the relationship with Hollywood cinema, gender politics, authorship and genre. Each article is accompanied with a guide to further reading and a filmography of the director, and the new edition also includes a fully revised introduction and a bibliography on French cinema.
Press Reviews:
Praise for the first edition: `Each essay is admirably scholarly, with conscientious notes, bibliography, filmography; the book has its own long useful bibliography ... This is film criticism at its most professional.' - Choice
See the publisher website: Routledge
> From the same authors:
The Routledge Companion to European Cinema (2024)
Dir. Gábor Gergely and Susan Hayward
Film Ecology (2021)
Defending the Biosphere - Doughnut Economics and Film Theory and Practice
Subject: Theory
Ecology Documentaries (2021)
Their Function and Value Seen Through the Lens of Doughnut Economics
Subject: Genre > Documentary
A Companion to Jean Renoir (2013)
Dir. Alastair Phillips and Ginette Vincendeau
Subject: Director > Jean Renoir
French Costume Drama of the 1950s (2010)
Fashioning Politics in Film
The Films of Luc Besson (2007)
Master of Spectacle
Dir. Susan Hayward and Philip Powrie
Subject: Director > Luc Besson
> On a related topic:
Past Forward (2010)
French Cinema and the Post-Colonial Heritage
Is It French? Popular Postnational Screen Fiction from France (2024)
Dir. Mary Harrod and Raphaëlle Moine
Subject: Sociology
Open Roads, Closed Borders (2013)
The Contemporary French-Language Road Movie
Dir. Michael Gott and Thibaut Schilt
Subject: Sociology
Mixed Feelings in France (2025)
White Femininity and Métissage in French Multicultural Comedy
Nouvelles Femmes (2025)
Modern Women of the French New Wave and Their Enduring Contribution to Cinema
Through a Nuclear Lens (2024)
France, Japan, and Cinema from Hiroshima to Fukushima
Gender in French Banlieue Cinema (2024)
Intersectional Perspectives
Dir. Marzia Caporale, Claire Mouflard and Habib Zanzana
The Cinematic Influence (2024)
Interaction and Exchange Between the Cinemas of France and Japan