Gender and French Cinema: Introduction

This book opens up the history of twentieth-century French cinema from the silent era to the present day by exploring the key role of gender and sexual politics. A much-needed sequel to Berg's bestselling Gender and German Cinema, the volume tackles such questions as: ? What role did the female voice play when sound cinema was first developed? ? How have film genres and movements been shaped by gender and sexual politics? ? How does gender intersect with factors of race, class, ethnic and national identity? The contributors also throw into relief broad issues such as the evolution of film in the context of 20C French social, political and cultural history. Bringing together original essays by French, British and American scholars, the collection fully covers the development of French cinema. It addresses the work of individual auteurs, the French star system, and film genres and movements such as Dada and Surrealism, the New Wave and the New New Wave. It also focuses on film narratives in which issues of gender are particularly pertinent. The volume, which features illustrations, a filmography and bibliography, will be one of the standard handbooks in French cultural/film studies for some time to come.