Will Higbee

This article analyses the social-realist melodramas of director Laurent Cantet: Ressources humaines (2000) and Emploi du temps (2001). It considers the socio-political subject matter of the two films in relation to so-called New Realism and the ‘return of the political’ in French cinema since the mid-1990s. The article also examines Cantet’s use of melodrama – the function of mise-en-scène, emphasis on the family as the site of wider social crisis, and the director’s apparent pre-occupation with father–son relationships – as a means of articulating the affects/effects of broader social and political forces on the individual. Finally, the article considers how Cantet’s social melodramas are intricately bound to the theme of masculinity in crisis, through the relationship of the white, middle-class, male bodies of the central protagonists to the various spaces – physical, social, economic – that they occupy during the film.

... exist as little more than perceived or constructed identities or positionings to serve hegemony – as Egyptian director Youssef Chahine replied in the documentary Caméra arabe (Boughedir, 1987) when asked about his posi ... 2000), 'Framing National Cinemas', in M. Hjort and S ...

Page 1. JMP 11 (1) pp. 3–10 © Intellect Ltd 2010 Journal of Media Practice Volume 11 Number 1 © Intellect Ltd 2010. Introduction. English language. doi: 10.1386/jmpr.11.1.3/2 SAËR MATY B University of St Andrews WILL HIGBEE University of Exeter ...

... pp. 240-54. Télérama (1995), 'Entretien avec Mathieu Kassovitz: “C'est pas interdit de parler aux mecs des banlieues”', No. 2368, 31 May Vincendeau, G. (2000), 'Designs on the banlieue: Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine (199

... of the village, but also from moments of intimacy shared by characters on screen, such as the welcome afforded to Kamel upon his ... France in films such as Inch'Allah dimanche, Vivre au paradis/Living in Paradise (Guerdjou, 1998), and Indigènes/Days of Glory (Bouchareb, 2006 ...