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UC Center Program -
Spring 2006
PCC 120. Paris on film: City of Light Since 1895
Prof.
Christian-Marc Bosséno
Office Hours
Wednesday 11am-noon |
Lecture
Wednesday, noon-3 pm
Film Screening + Section
Tuesday, 1:30-4:30 pm
(Carole Viers) |
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“Cinema is an art, but it is also a business.” André Malraux, Minister of Culture under General de Gaulle, thus highlighted the ambivalent attitude of the French towards the moving image: film is a commercial product for mass consumption and it is the “seventh art” catering to an elite of “cinéphiles” (film lovers). From the beginning, Paris was the center of French film-making, and a central image and representation of French cinema. This course considers the complex networks of links between Paris and French cinema from as many angles as possible – aesthetic, historical, economical, philosophical, social and political – focusing in particular on the question of audience reception. It is at once a panorama of French cinema history since its beginnings, with the Lumière brothers in 1895, but also an exploration of how cinema - as one of the principal channels of modern mass culture, and one of the mainstays of today’s
cultural industry – and the city of Paris are enmeshed in webs of relationships that constitute territorial, political, social, and mythological entities. Meets once a week plus screenings and on-site excursions in Paris (film archives, cinemathèques, relevant movie theatres, studios, and famous film locations). [Film, Film Studies, Communication, Media, History, Visual Culture (Art History)] 6.0 Credits
COURSE MATERIALS
- Remi Fournier Lanzoni, French Cinema: From its Beginnings to the Present (Continuum, 2002)
- Course Reader (hereby referred to as [CR])
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
- Participation, screenings, in-class discussion: 15%
- Short paper (3-5 pp): 15%
- Longer paper (7-10 pp): 25%
- Midterm: 20%
- Final: 25%
COURSE SCHEDULE
Week 1. February 20-24
The Emergence of Cinema in Paris «Fin-de-siècle» Mass Culture
General Introduction
Special Screening:
- “Americans in Paris”, extracts from Ruggles of Red Gap (Leo Mc Carey, 1934), An American in Paris (Vincente Minelli, 1951) and Everyone Says I Love You (Woody Allen, 1997)
Reading:
- Leo Charney & Vanessa R. Schwartz, Cinema and the Invention of Modern Life, University of California Press, 1998, pp. 298-317
- Richard Abel, “Turn-of-the-Century France” and “The French Cinema Industry” in The Ciné Goes to Town: French Cinema, 1896-1914, University of California Press, 1994, pp. 1-25 [CR]
- Sue Harris, “Cinema in a Nation of Filmgoers” in William Kidd and Sian Reynolds, Contemporary French Cultural Studies, Arnold, 2000, pp. 208-219 [CR]
Week 2. February 27 - March 3
A Night at the Gaumont-Palace: Film as Popular Culture (1910s-1920s)
Screening:
- Episodes from Louis Feuillade’s Fantomas (1913)
Reading:
- Richard Abel, “Crime Pays” in The Ciné Goes to Town: French Cinema; 1896-1914, University of California Press, 1994, pp. 368-388 [CR]
- Susan Hayward, “Magical Moments of Film Silence” in French National Cinema, Routledge 1993, pp. 68-117 [CR]
Week 3. March 6-10
Film as the 7th Art, Movies in 1920s Paris Avant-garde and the “First Wave” of French “Cinéphilie”
First Short Paper due
Screening:
- Entr’acte (René Clair, 1924) and the « 10 août 1792 » and the « Marseillaise » episodes from Napoleon (Abel Gance, 1927)
Reading:
- Kevin Brownlow, Chapters 16-17 in Abel Gance’s Classic Film, Jonathan Cape, 1983, pp. 161-176 [CR]
- Richard Abel, “Napoleon” in French Film Theory and Criticism 1907-1939, Princeton University Press, 1998, pp. 400-408 [Class Handout]
- Richard Abel, “Napoleon” in French Cinema, the First Wave 1915-1929, Princeton University Press, 1984, pp.428-446 [CR]
Suggested reading:
- Alan Williams, Republic of Images: A History of French Filmmaking, Harvard University Press, 1992, pp.77-100
Week 4. March 13-17
Poetics and Politics: Paris and the 1930s “Réalisme Poétique”
Screening:
- Le Jour se Lève (Marcel Carné, 1944)
Reading:
- Remi Fournier Lanzoni, French Cinema: From its Beginnings to the Present (Continuum, 2002), pp. 53-75
- Colin Crisp, “Class, Authority, Oppression and the Dream of Escape” in Genre, Myth and Comvention im the French Cinema, 1929-1939, Indiana University Press, 2002, pp. 72-106 [CR]
Suggested reading:
- Alan Williams, Republic of Images: A History of French Filmmaking, Harvard University Press, 1992, pp. 213-242
Week 5. March 20-24
Filming under the German Occupation
Screening:
- Le Dernier Métro (Truffaut, 1980)
Reading:
- Rémi Fournier Lanzoni, French Cinema from its Beginnings to the Present, Continuum, 2002, pp. 103-142
- Evelyn Ehrlich, “A French School of Cinema” in Cinema of Paradox: French Filmaking under the German Occupation, Columbia University Press, 1985, pp.93-112 [CR]
Week 6. March 27-31
Rediscovering the “Old Paris”
Screening:
- Casque d’Or (Jacques Becker, 1952)
Reading:
- Rémi Fournier Lanzoni, French Cinema from its Beginnings to the Present, Continuum, 2002, pp. 170-194
Week 7. April 3-7
Paris in French Comedy
Screening:
- Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)
Reading:
- Colin Crisp, “Formation of Audiences” in The Classic French Cinema (1930-1960), Indianapolis University Press, 1997, pp. 213-265 [CR]
- Roy Armes, “Tradition of Quality 1951-57”, French Cinema, Secker & Warburg, 1985, pp. 146-160 [CR]
Suggested Reading:
- Alan Williams, Republic of Images: A History of French Filmmaking, Harvard University Press, 1992, pp. 272-292
Midterm Exam
SPRING BREAK
Week 8. April 18-21
Back in the Streets: Paris and the “Nouvelle Vague”, Part I
Screening:
- Les 400 Coups (François Truffaut, 1960)
Reading:
- Rémi Fournier Lanzoni, French Cinema from its Beginnings to the Present, Continuum, 2002, pp. 195-244
- Ann Gillain, “The Script of Delinquency: François Truffaut’s Les 400 Coups” in Susan Hayward & Ginette Vincendeau (ed.), French Film: Text and Context, Routledge, 2000, pp.142-157 [CR]
Week 9. April 24-28
Paris and the “Nouvelle Vague”, Part II
Screening:
- A Bout de Souffle (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
Reading:
- Michel Marie, “It Really Makes You Sick: Jean-Luc Godard’s A Bout de Souffle” in Susan Hayward and Ginette Vincendeau, French Film, Text and Context, Routledge, 2000, pp. 158-173 [CR]
Suggested Reading:
- Alan Williams, Republic of Images: A History of French Filmmaking, Harvard University Press, 1992, pp. 327-378
Week 10. May 2-5
Paris in the 1970s “New Naturalism”
Screening:
- La Maman et la Putain (Jean Eustache, 1973)
Reading:
- J. Forbes, “Jean Eustache” in The Cinema in France: After the New Wave, BFI-McMillan, 1992, pp. 137-152 [CR]
- Remi Fournier Lanzoni, French Cinema from its Beginnings to the Present, Continuum, 2002, pp.245-297
Week 11. May 9-12
Paris in the “Post-cinéma”: the 1980s
Screening:
- Diva (Jean-Jacques Beineix, 1981)
Reading:
- Suzan Hayward, “Pastiche Culture: A Last Look at the Cinema of the 1980s” in French National Cinema, Routledge, 1993, pp.283-305 [CR]
- Remi Fournier Lanzoni, French Cinema from its Beginning to the Present, Continuum, 2002, pp.298-348
Second Paper Due
Week 12. May 15-19
Rediscovering the Suburbs: Paris and Cinema in the 1990s
Screening:
- La Haine (Mathieu Kassowitz, 1995)
Reading:
- Rémi Fournier Lanzoni, French Cinema from its Beginnings to the Present, Continuum, 2002, pp. 349-418 (continued in week 13)
- Christian Bosséno, “Immigrant Cinema / National Cinema: the Case of Beur Film” in Richard Dyer & Ginette Vincendeau (dir.), European Popular Cinema, Routeledge, 1992, pp. 47-57 [CR]
- Richard Dyer and Emma Wilson, “Paris, City of Light” in French Cinema Since 1950, Duckworth, 1999, pp. 121-136 [CR]
Week 13. May 22-24
Paris and Cinema at the Turn of the Century
Screening:
- Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)
Final Exam
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