DHUM 27A10 - Postcolonial French Cinema

Postcolonial sites par excellence, France's multicultural urban centres and banlieues embody what Edouard Glissant called the Tout-Monde. In what ways does contemporary French cinema, a powerful societal mirror, reflect the Tout-Monde at the heart of postcolonial France?

Alternating class viewings and analysis of a corpus of five contemporary films by ethnic majority and minority French filmmakers, this class will consider these cinematic representations, contextualizing them within France's postcolonial history and contemporary social relations. Students will learn to read and deconstruct these works' different representations and perspectives, taking into account what cultural theorist Stuart Hall termed the "position of enunciation" of their filmmakers (who speaks, who films).

These filmic analyses will be further contextualized and complemented by readings of theoretical postcolonial, sociological and cultural studies texts.

As not all of the films studied are available with English subtitles, students will be expected to manage to follow a French-language film, with the help of an overall plot resumé.

Séances et programme *

Introduction and viewing of l'Esquive by Abdellatif Kechiche

Séance 3 Analysis of film / student presentations: representations, spaces, themes, characters, image, sound.

Séance 4 : Gender, violence

Introduction and viewing of Bande des filles by Céline Sciamma

Introduction and viewing of Divines by Houda Benyamina

Séance 7 :

Analysis of film / student presentations: representations, spaces, themes, characters, image, sound.

Séance 8 : Family, community, cultural rooting

Introduction and viewing of Fatima by Philippe Faucon

Introduction and viewing of Rengaine by Rachid Djaidani

• For reasons of availability, and according to new releases, the films announced may be subject to changes, but the general themes of the programme will remain unchanged.

MODALITÉS D’ÉVALUATION

*Screen-Free class

Students will be expected to view the entire film corpus, and to read the extracts/articles given on average every fortnight. They will be asked to prepare a class group presentation of one of the films during the semester and to participate in collective discussions of all the works, demonstrating both personal reflection and informed research, and their ability to think about, analyse and contextualize the films clearly. A final essay will be set at the end of the semester, requiring an overall understanding of the films and the representational issues/context discussed throughout.