French Blockbusters
Cultural Politics of a Transnational Cinema
Seiten
2021
Edinburgh University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4744-8427-5 (ISBN)
Edinburgh University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4744-8427-5 (ISBN)
The digitised spectacles conjured by a word like ‘blockbuster’ may create a certain cognitive dissonance with received ideas about French cinema – long celebrated as a model for philosophical, economic and aesthetic resistance to globalised popular culture. While the Gallic ‘cultural exception’ remains a forceful current to this day, this book shows how the onslaught of Hollywood mega-franchises and new media platforms since the 1980s has also provoked an overtly commercialised response from French producers eager to redefine the stakes and scope of their own traditions.
From English-language action vehicles like Valérian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Besson, 2017) to revisionist historical films like Of Gods and Men (Beauvois, 2011) and crowd-pleasing comedies like Intouchables (Tolédano & Nakache, 2011), the variously filiated ‘local blockbusters’ from contemporary France brim with the seeds of cultural contradiction, but also with the energy of a forceful counter-history.
Cutting across a swath of recent French-produced cinema, French Blockbusters offers the first book-length consideration of the theoretical implications, historical impact and cultural consequences of a recent grouping of popular films that are rapidly changing what it means to make – or to see – a ‘French’ film today.
From English-language action vehicles like Valérian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Besson, 2017) to revisionist historical films like Of Gods and Men (Beauvois, 2011) and crowd-pleasing comedies like Intouchables (Tolédano & Nakache, 2011), the variously filiated ‘local blockbusters’ from contemporary France brim with the seeds of cultural contradiction, but also with the energy of a forceful counter-history.
Cutting across a swath of recent French-produced cinema, French Blockbusters offers the first book-length consideration of the theoretical implications, historical impact and cultural consequences of a recent grouping of popular films that are rapidly changing what it means to make – or to see – a ‘French’ film today.
Charlie Michael is Assistant Professor of Film at Georgia Gwinnett College outside Atlanta. He is the author of French Blockbusters: Cultural Politics of a Transnational Cinema (EUP, 2019) and the co-editor of the Directory of World Cinema France (2013).
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
Foreword by Frédéric Gimello-Mesplomb
Introduction: French Blockbusters?
Chapter 1: The Lang Plan and its Aftermath
Chapter 2: Popular French Cinema and ‘Cultural Diversity’
Chapter 3: The Debatable Destiny of Amélie Poulain
Chapter 4: Valerian and the Planet of a Thousand Critics
Chapter 5: Countercurrents in French Action Cinema
Chapter 6: Serial (Bad?) French Comedies
Conclusion: A Disputed Heritage
| Erscheinungsdatum | 08.06.2021 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | Traditions in World Cinema |
| Zusatzinfo | 26 black and white illustrations |
| Verlagsort | Edinburgh |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 156 x 234 mm |
| Themenwelt | Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Film / TV |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Medienwissenschaft | |
| ISBN-10 | 1-4744-8427-1 / 1474484271 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-4744-8427-5 / 9781474484275 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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