Unraveling French Cinema: From LAtalante to Caché

Unraveling French Cinema provides a much–needed introduction to the complexities of French film for students, cineastes, and the movie–loving public. Kline analyzes seven cinematic arenas, each chosen to present the reader with an experience of reading a film for plot and a particular definition of what it means to make a film. Each chapter crafts a particular theory of film as dream, hypnosis, mapping, poetry, seduction, mourning, and even terrorism that is central to the French cinematic tradition.

Choosing films that are well known and DVD–accessible, the volume lists series of films that can be profitably viewed through the lens of each chapter.  Kline situates François Truffaut s well–known The Story of Adele H. as a pivotal film throughout the book, and threads it through each chapter, with a view to building on readers′ acquisition of critical thinking and viewing skills. Unraveling French Cinema is a must–have guide whether you′re watching Louis Malle and Lumière classics or Cocteau and Haneke′s Caché.

Acknowledgments vi

Introduction 1

1 Cinema and/as Poetry: L Atalante s Apples as Poems 13

2 Cinema and the Real: Renoir s Rules 35

3 Cinema and/as Crime: Breaking the Law in The Children of Paradise, Pickpocket, and Breathless 54

4 Cinema and/as Mapping: Reorienting Ourselves Through Film 83

5 Cinema and/as Dream: Truffaut s Royal Road to Adele H. 109

6 Cinema and/as Hypnosis: Jacquot s Seventh Heaven 132

7 Cinema and/as Mourning: Anne Fontaine s How I Killed My Father 148

8 Cinema and/as Terror: Michael Haneke s Caché 165

9 Beautiful Fragments: Discontinuity and the French Cinema 179

Notes 193

References 212

Index 219

T. Jefferson Kline is a Professor of French at Boston University where he served as Chair of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures (1979–88) and more recently received a Metcalf Award for excellence in teaching. His publications include Bertolucci′s Dream Loom, I film di Bertolucci, Intertextuality in New Wave French Cinema and various edited works and essays on literature.

"T. Jefferson Kline′s recent book is an interesting, instructive, and at times intriguing Read. . . Jean Vigo′s L′Atalante is presented as an excellent example of how poetry can be achieved through cinematography." (Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 1 September 2011)

"Cinema historians or those specialists in film studies interested in the links between film and history may find something still to be desired from these combinations, even if the analysis offered does shed quite a different light on some of the most famous films of French cinema." (FH, 2 June 2011)

"In Unraveling French Cinema by T. Jefferson Kline, the focus (and astoundingly detailed focus it is too) is on the complexities of this strain of cinema divided appropriately into eight sections accompanied by in–depth examinations of ten films." (M/C Reviews, August 20,  2010)

"I enjoyed this book very much and found it to be challenging, rewarding and worthwhile. Kline has an engaging prose style and clearly knows his stuff. Envy his students." (Jildy Sauce, April 2010)