A Cultural History of French Cinema Through the Representations of Paris

The objective in this course will be to study the evolution of the representations of Paris in the French cinema through the 20th century. The focus will be on historical moments and sociological aspects.
We shall start with the birth of the cinema with the Lumière brothers and the other pioneers such as George Meliès, Alice Guy and Louis Feuillade.
The Avant-Garde movement of the 1920s will be our next subject with directors such Abel Gance, René Clair, Germaine Dulac or Jean Epstein; directors from outside the country as well such as Salvadore Dali or Luis Bunuel will not be forgotten.
The Front Populaire period with the “Réalisme Poétique” movement will be our next stop with the masterpieces of Jean Vigo, jean Renoir and Marcel Carné.
The “Nouvelle Vague” of the 1950s and its developments in the 1960s will offer us the possibility to see a vision of Paris which remains impressed in the minds of the public to this day.
And we shall finally concentrate on the end of the 20th century productions with Maurice Pialat, Philippe Garrel or Leos Carax, not forgetting the more popular best-selling productions of directors such as Jean-Jacques Annaud, Luc Besson or Jean-Pierre Jeunet and his world hit of 2001 Amélie Poulain.
The classes will be based on film study and analysis, putting into practice the information gathered during the presentations. Film excerpts screenings will be offered on a regular basis. No previous knowledge of French cinema required.

Required texts:

Jean Douchet et Gilles Nadeau, Paris cinéma : Une ville vue par le cinéma de 1895 à nos jours, Paris, éd. du May, 1987, 199 p.
N. T. Binh et avec la collab. de Franck Garbarz, Paris au cinéma : La vie rêvée de la capitale de Méliès à Amélie Poulain, Paris, Parigramme, 2003, 223 p.
Virginie Descure et Christophe Casazza, Ciné Paris : 20 balades sur des lieux de tournages mythiques, Éditions Hors Collection, 167 pages, 2003