elements may be detected. Raising more questions than they answer, the films may be read and rere... more elements may be detected. Raising more questions than they answer, the films may be read and reread in complementary ways, without the viewer being able to settle on any one interpretation. Wheatley offers family ties as a critically neglected theme; James S. Williams expands on kinship through the motif of grafting, which gives rise to new kinds of family and home, to ‘unnatural’ kinship (p. 101); and Sam Ishii-Gonzales analyses a broader type of relationality. Denis’s films blend concrete reality and elusiveness, thus typifying the ungraspable nature of the ‘whole fragment’, and attempt communication with the audience despite not having easily decipherable messages. Innovative studies on, for instance, the opening sequences of Denis’s films (Noelle Rouxel-Cubberly), the choreographic treatment of image and movement (Laura McMahon), and interstitial repetition (Firoza Elavia) find original ways of accessing ideas in her films. The dynamics between people, set against urban or rural...
Heightened Genre and Women's Filmmaking in Hollywood, 2021
This chapter concludes the book by comparing Lords of Dogtown (Hardwicke, 2005) with The Bling Ri... more This chapter concludes the book by comparing Lords of Dogtown (Hardwicke, 2005) with The Bling Ring (Coppola, 2013) through both films’ Los Angeles setting. Harrod suggests this adds a further dimension to the narratives’ docudramatic status, foregrounding heightened genre films’ entanglement with material realities. The Bling Ring further renders the mechanism by which an apparently concrete author is suggested for audiences more evident by customising its generic world in the image of a real milieu associated with the director’s public persona, underlining autofictional elements as constructed through a (global) public imaginary. Coppola’s film thus epitomises the work of heightened genre through its mapping of an implied authorial subjectivity that is inherently communal.
Love stories have always been at the heart of French cinema, but romantic comedies have, until re... more Love stories have always been at the heart of French cinema, but romantic comedies have, until recently, been absent from it. In 2001, the global success of Amelie catalysed a major development in the Western world's second-largest film industry: the appropriation of the 'Hollywood' romantic comedy genre (or Rom-Com a l'Americaine). In From France with Love, Mary Harrod explores this contemporary phenomenon, examining both local hits and films with international status. Using socio-cultural data, box-office figures and analysis of critical reception, she reveals the ways in which these films mirror shifting attitudes towards gender roles within French society, as well as the increasingly important interrelation between French national cinema and transnational filmmaking paradigms.
This article examines Canal+’s contribution to the recent or contemporary consolidation of three ... more This article examines Canal+’s contribution to the recent or contemporary consolidation of three genres traditionally excluded from the French filmmaking landscape: romantic comedies, horror films, and teen movies. The many films from these emergent French genres funded and in frequent cases also more indirectly supported by Canal+ speak to the organization’s status as a transnational, transmedia production entity. Moreover, analyzing the new French genre trends in whose burgeoning the company has been instrumental suggests the difficulties of unpicking geo-cultural allegiances and influences in an ever more multidirectional, multiplatform, cross-hybridizing mediasphere. This article considers the case study films Alibi.com (2017) and Grave (2016) to illustrate the fact that, like the European audiovisual mainstream as a whole, French genre films are bound up in an increasingly transnational and complex intertextual web - a state of affairs promoted by multinational conglomerates su...
Northern Lights: Film & Media Studies Yearbook, 2020
This article approaches contemporary European cinema as transnational cinema from an angle inform... more This article approaches contemporary European cinema as transnational cinema from an angle informed by gender and sexuality studies. It is underpinned by a fluid conception of identity, which it identifies with its objects of study, in terms of production context, market positioning and also form and theme. Specifically, I approach comparatively the embrace of postnational textual identity alongside posthuman ‐ especially post-gender ‐ characterization by two of the most visible recent European auteur films, Olivier Assayas' Personal Shopper (2016) and Michael Haneke's Happy End (2017). I consider the ideological implications of the narratives' explorations of immorality in a contemporary western context marked in both films by the breakdown of communication and a related failure of ethical responsibility, often constellated in relation to technological advancement. The article draws on the Continental theories of Slavoj Žižek and to a lesser extent Jean Baudrillard and ...
in these cycles, different bids to establish the Europeanness of Spanish identity. Finally, Aliss... more in these cycles, different bids to establish the Europeanness of Spanish identity. Finally, Alissa Timoshkina discusses the films of Russian-Jewish director Pavel Lungin within the context of Russia’s conflictive relationship with Europe, tracing a trajectory from alienation to homecoming. Initially associating Europe with culture and freedom, his later movies celebrate the power and simplicity of the Russian village. This reflects a basic contradiction in recent Russian history between a desire for Europe and the preservation of its national autonomy. The versatility of the structure and the diversity of perspectives are combined in The Europeanness of European Cinema with a consistency in the commitment to the search for Europe on a variety of levels and through a variety of cinematic practices. Some chapters may be more far-reaching than others, but they all contribute to a harmonious whole. The occasional jarring note is inevitable, as when, in summarising the pros and cons of European integration, Thomas Elsaesser affirms that sudden wealth has been brought to Europe’s periphery at the cost of general impoverishment across the continent (21), an insight that betrays the type of condescending attitude from the ‘centre’ to the periphery that is breaking apart the European Union, and which sits awkwardly in a book that explores Europeanness. Otherwise, while French cinema takes a privileged position in this book, it nonetheless is a position that probably reflects faithfully its objective importance within the continent. This prominence stands in stark contrast to the virtual absence of British cinema within the book, an absence that is perhaps more surprising if we take into account that most of the authors are film scholars based in the UK. This may be simply due to academic compartmentalisation, but it retrospectively proves serendipitous once Brexit has become the reality feared by many and hoped for by just a few more.
Introduction 1. The Early Comedies of the Sound Era 2. The Comedies of Post War France 3. Comedy ... more Introduction 1. The Early Comedies of the Sound Era 2. The Comedies of Post War France 3. Comedy in the Modern Era 4. French Comedy Today
ABSTRACT Since 2000 in particular, French cinema has witnessed an explosion in romantic comedy pr... more ABSTRACT Since 2000 in particular, French cinema has witnessed an explosion in romantic comedy production. Women film-makers across the board from popular auteur to more mainstream cinema have been instrumental in the phenomenon. This essay explores the implications of women adopting a genre traditionally associated with conservative ideologies. It argues for a more inclusive, hybrid approach to rom-com, exploring its mobilization by women directors in a range of films. Notable trends are the way in which conventional gender positions are made fluid, the genre's frequent splicing with family narratives, and the prevalence of the ensemble rom-com, which is examined in the light of Tania Modleski's observations about the ‘femininity’ of episodic forms. The essay concludes that, despite its restrictions in addressing women within (usually white, middle class) heterosexual couples, the rom-com offers French women film-makers a means to speak in a widely understandable yet original and sometimes feminist voice.
elements may be detected. Raising more questions than they answer, the films may be read and rere... more elements may be detected. Raising more questions than they answer, the films may be read and reread in complementary ways, without the viewer being able to settle on any one interpretation. Wheatley offers family ties as a critically neglected theme; James S. Williams expands on kinship through the motif of grafting, which gives rise to new kinds of family and home, to ‘unnatural’ kinship (p. 101); and Sam Ishii-Gonzales analyses a broader type of relationality. Denis’s films blend concrete reality and elusiveness, thus typifying the ungraspable nature of the ‘whole fragment’, and attempt communication with the audience despite not having easily decipherable messages. Innovative studies on, for instance, the opening sequences of Denis’s films (Noelle Rouxel-Cubberly), the choreographic treatment of image and movement (Laura McMahon), and interstitial repetition (Firoza Elavia) find original ways of accessing ideas in her films. The dynamics between people, set against urban or rural...
Heightened Genre and Women's Filmmaking in Hollywood, 2021
This chapter concludes the book by comparing Lords of Dogtown (Hardwicke, 2005) with The Bling Ri... more This chapter concludes the book by comparing Lords of Dogtown (Hardwicke, 2005) with The Bling Ring (Coppola, 2013) through both films’ Los Angeles setting. Harrod suggests this adds a further dimension to the narratives’ docudramatic status, foregrounding heightened genre films’ entanglement with material realities. The Bling Ring further renders the mechanism by which an apparently concrete author is suggested for audiences more evident by customising its generic world in the image of a real milieu associated with the director’s public persona, underlining autofictional elements as constructed through a (global) public imaginary. Coppola’s film thus epitomises the work of heightened genre through its mapping of an implied authorial subjectivity that is inherently communal.
Love stories have always been at the heart of French cinema, but romantic comedies have, until re... more Love stories have always been at the heart of French cinema, but romantic comedies have, until recently, been absent from it. In 2001, the global success of Amelie catalysed a major development in the Western world's second-largest film industry: the appropriation of the 'Hollywood' romantic comedy genre (or Rom-Com a l'Americaine). In From France with Love, Mary Harrod explores this contemporary phenomenon, examining both local hits and films with international status. Using socio-cultural data, box-office figures and analysis of critical reception, she reveals the ways in which these films mirror shifting attitudes towards gender roles within French society, as well as the increasingly important interrelation between French national cinema and transnational filmmaking paradigms.
This article examines Canal+’s contribution to the recent or contemporary consolidation of three ... more This article examines Canal+’s contribution to the recent or contemporary consolidation of three genres traditionally excluded from the French filmmaking landscape: romantic comedies, horror films, and teen movies. The many films from these emergent French genres funded and in frequent cases also more indirectly supported by Canal+ speak to the organization’s status as a transnational, transmedia production entity. Moreover, analyzing the new French genre trends in whose burgeoning the company has been instrumental suggests the difficulties of unpicking geo-cultural allegiances and influences in an ever more multidirectional, multiplatform, cross-hybridizing mediasphere. This article considers the case study films Alibi.com (2017) and Grave (2016) to illustrate the fact that, like the European audiovisual mainstream as a whole, French genre films are bound up in an increasingly transnational and complex intertextual web - a state of affairs promoted by multinational conglomerates su...
Northern Lights: Film & Media Studies Yearbook, 2020
This article approaches contemporary European cinema as transnational cinema from an angle inform... more This article approaches contemporary European cinema as transnational cinema from an angle informed by gender and sexuality studies. It is underpinned by a fluid conception of identity, which it identifies with its objects of study, in terms of production context, market positioning and also form and theme. Specifically, I approach comparatively the embrace of postnational textual identity alongside posthuman ‐ especially post-gender ‐ characterization by two of the most visible recent European auteur films, Olivier Assayas' Personal Shopper (2016) and Michael Haneke's Happy End (2017). I consider the ideological implications of the narratives' explorations of immorality in a contemporary western context marked in both films by the breakdown of communication and a related failure of ethical responsibility, often constellated in relation to technological advancement. The article draws on the Continental theories of Slavoj Žižek and to a lesser extent Jean Baudrillard and ...
in these cycles, different bids to establish the Europeanness of Spanish identity. Finally, Aliss... more in these cycles, different bids to establish the Europeanness of Spanish identity. Finally, Alissa Timoshkina discusses the films of Russian-Jewish director Pavel Lungin within the context of Russia’s conflictive relationship with Europe, tracing a trajectory from alienation to homecoming. Initially associating Europe with culture and freedom, his later movies celebrate the power and simplicity of the Russian village. This reflects a basic contradiction in recent Russian history between a desire for Europe and the preservation of its national autonomy. The versatility of the structure and the diversity of perspectives are combined in The Europeanness of European Cinema with a consistency in the commitment to the search for Europe on a variety of levels and through a variety of cinematic practices. Some chapters may be more far-reaching than others, but they all contribute to a harmonious whole. The occasional jarring note is inevitable, as when, in summarising the pros and cons of European integration, Thomas Elsaesser affirms that sudden wealth has been brought to Europe’s periphery at the cost of general impoverishment across the continent (21), an insight that betrays the type of condescending attitude from the ‘centre’ to the periphery that is breaking apart the European Union, and which sits awkwardly in a book that explores Europeanness. Otherwise, while French cinema takes a privileged position in this book, it nonetheless is a position that probably reflects faithfully its objective importance within the continent. This prominence stands in stark contrast to the virtual absence of British cinema within the book, an absence that is perhaps more surprising if we take into account that most of the authors are film scholars based in the UK. This may be simply due to academic compartmentalisation, but it retrospectively proves serendipitous once Brexit has become the reality feared by many and hoped for by just a few more.
Introduction 1. The Early Comedies of the Sound Era 2. The Comedies of Post War France 3. Comedy ... more Introduction 1. The Early Comedies of the Sound Era 2. The Comedies of Post War France 3. Comedy in the Modern Era 4. French Comedy Today
ABSTRACT Since 2000 in particular, French cinema has witnessed an explosion in romantic comedy pr... more ABSTRACT Since 2000 in particular, French cinema has witnessed an explosion in romantic comedy production. Women film-makers across the board from popular auteur to more mainstream cinema have been instrumental in the phenomenon. This essay explores the implications of women adopting a genre traditionally associated with conservative ideologies. It argues for a more inclusive, hybrid approach to rom-com, exploring its mobilization by women directors in a range of films. Notable trends are the way in which conventional gender positions are made fluid, the genre's frequent splicing with family narratives, and the prevalence of the ensemble rom-com, which is examined in the light of Tania Modleski's observations about the ‘femininity’ of episodic forms. The essay concludes that, despite its restrictions in addressing women within (usually white, middle class) heterosexual couples, the rom-com offers French women film-makers a means to speak in a widely understandable yet original and sometimes feminist voice.
Heightened Genre and Women's Filmmaking in Hollywood: the Rise of the Cine-fille, 2021
Despite the widely publicised prejudice faced by women in Hollywood, since around 1990 a signific... more Despite the widely publicised prejudice faced by women in Hollywood, since around 1990 a significant minority of female directors have been making commercially and culturally impactful films across the full range of genres. This book explores movies by filmmakers Amy Heckerling, Nora Ephron, Nancy Meyers, Catherine Hardwicke, Sofia Coppola, Kimberly Peirce, Kathryn Bigelow and Greta Gerwig, including many which are still critically neglected or derided, seeing them as offering a new understanding of genre filmmaking. That is, like many other contemporary films but in a striking proportion within the smaller set of mainstream movies by women, this body of work revels in a heightened genre status that allows its authors to simultaneously address ‘intellectual’ cinephilic pleasures and bodily-emotive ones. Arguing through close analysis that these films demonstrate the inseparability of such strategies of engagement in contemporary genre cinema, Heightened Genre reclaims women’s mainstream filmmaking for feminism through a recalibration of genre theory itself.
Uploads