French cinema in the 1970s
The echoes of May
By Alison Smith
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- Format: Paperback
- ISBN: 978-0-7190-6341-1
- Pages: 304
- Price: £16.99
- Published Date: March 2005
Description
This book re-examines French cinema of the 1970s. It focuses on the debates which shook French cinema, and the calls for film-makers to rethink their manner of filming, subject matter and ideals in the immediate aftermath of the student revolution of May 1968.
Alison Smith examines the effect of this re-thinking across the spectrum of French production, the rise of new genres and re-formulation of older ones. Chapters investigate political thrillers, historical films, new naturalism and Utopian fantasies, dealing with a wide variety of films.
A particular concern is the extent to which film-makers' ideas and intentions are contained in or contradicted by their finished work, and the gradual change in these ideas over the decade.
The final chapter is a detailed study of two directors who were deeply involved in the debates and events of the 70s, William Klein and Alain Tanner, here taken as exemplary spokesmen for those changing debates as their echoes reached the cinema.
Contents
Acknowledgements
List of illustrations
Introduction
1. May in the cinema
2. The 'Serie-Z', politics and the thriller genre
3. The new naturalism
4. Filmic Utopias: Imagining the new society
5. Revolutionary form in theory and practice
6. The representation of history
7. Two directors: William Klein and Alain Tanner
Author
Alison Smith is Lecturer in French and European Film Studies at the University of Liverpool