French Film Resources
A Companion to Contemporary French Cinema by 
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ISBN: 1118585429Date: 2014-12-02Presents a comprehensive collection of original essays addressing all aspects of French cinema from 1990 to the present day. Features original contributions from top film scholars relating to all aspects of contemporary French cinema Includes new research on matters relating to the political economy of contemporary French cinema, developments in cinema policy, audience attendance, and the types, building, and renovation of theaters.
Directory of World Cinema: France by ISBN: 9781841505633Date: 2013-04-15Artistic, intellectual, and appreciably avant-garde, the French film industry has, perhaps more than any other national cinema, been perennially at the center of international filmmaking. This volume addresses the great directors and key artistic movements, but also ventures beyond these well-established films and figures, broadening the canon through an examination of many neglected but intriguing French films.
French Film History, 1895-1946 by - This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 0299337731Date: 2022-06-07French Film History, 1895-1946 addresses the creative and often unexpected trajectory of French cinema, which continues to be one of the most provocative and engaging cinemas in the world. Tracing French film and its developments from the earliest days, when France dominated world cinema, up through the Occupation and Liberation, Neupert outlines major players and films that made it so influential.
The French Cinema Book by ISBN: 9781844574650Date: 2018-01-26This thoroughly revised and expanded edition of a key textbook offers an innovative and accessible account of the richness and diversity of French film history and culture from the 1890s to the present day.
French Cinema: From Its Beginnings to the Present by - This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9781501303074Date: 2015-10-22From the earliest flickering images of the late nineteenth century through the silent era, Surrealist influences, the Nazi Occupation, the glories of the New Wave, the rebirth of the industry in the 1990s with the exception culturelle, and the present, Rémi Lanzoni examines a considerable number of the world's most beloved films.
The Red Years of Cahiers du cinéma (1968-1973) : Volume I, Ideology and Politics by Open Access e-book. The Red Years of Cahiers du Cinéma (1968-1973) gives a historical overview of this period in the journal's history, combining biographical accounts of the critics who were involved with Cahiers in the post-1968 and theoretical explorations of the text they wrote. Volume I focuses on the relationship of film with the spheres of ideology and politics.- The Red Years of Cahiers du cinéma (1968-1973) : Volume II, Aesthetics and Ontology by Date: 2021Open Access e-book. With a Marxist orientation inspired by the thinking of Louis Althusser, Jacques Lacan and Roland Barthes, the "red years" of Cahiers du cinéma produced a theoretical outpouring that was formative for the establishment of film studies as an academic discipline in the 1970s, and is still of vital relevance for the contemporary audiovisual landscape. Volume II centers on questions of aesthetics and the cinema's ontological relationship with the real.
Republic of Images: A History of French Filmmaking by ISBN: 0674762681Date: 1992-03-01Traces the evolution of French filmmaking from 1895-the year of the debut of the Cinematographe in Paris-to the present day. Alan Williams offers a unique synthesis of history, biography, aesthetics and film theory.
Screenwriters in French Cinema by ISBN: 9780719088421Date: 2021-03-09The first English language study to address screenwriters in French cinema, this volume will be of particular interest to scholars and students of French film and screenwriting. Taking a diachronic approach, it includes case studies drawn from the early sound period to the present day in order to offer an alternative historiography of French cinema, shed light on these overlooked figures and revisit the vexed question of film authorship.
Continental Films: French Cinema under German Control by ISBN: 9780299339807Date: 2022-11-29From 1940 to 1944, the German-owned Continental Films dominated the French film landscape, producing thirty features throughout the Nazi occupation. Using recently opened archival documents, including reams of testimony from the épuration (purification) hearings conducted shortly after the war, Christine Leteux has produced the most authoritative and complete history of the company and its impact on the French film industry--both during the war and after.
French Blockbusters by - This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9781474424233Date: 2019-07-19This book shows how the onslaught of Hollywood mega-franchises and new media platforms since the 1980s has also provoked an overtly commercialised response from French producers eager to redefine the stakes and scope of their own traditions. From English-language action vehicles like Valérian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Besson, 2017) to revisionist historical films like Of Gods and Men (Beauvois, 2011) and crowd-pleasing comedies like Intouchables (Tolédano & Nakache, 2011), the variously filiated 'local blockbusters' from contemporary France brim with the seeds of cultural contradiction, but also with the energy of a forceful counter-history.
French Cinema from the Liberation to the New Wave, 1945-1958 by ISBN: 9781608010844Date: 2012-08-16Bazin's French Cinema from the Liberation to the New Wave, 1945-1958 contains, for the first time in English, nearly all of his writings about the practitioners as well as the predecessors of the French New Wave, a movement that had a profound impact on the evolution of cinematic style and subject matter.
French Musical Culture and the Coming of Sound Cinema by ISBN: 9780190635985Date: 2018-10-03In France, debates about sound cinema were fierce and widespread. In this book, author Hannah Lewis argues that the debates about sound film resonated deeply within French musical culture of the early 1930s, and conversely, that discourses surrounding a range of French musical styles and genres shaped audiovisual cinematic experiments during the transition to sound.
French-Speaking Women Film Directors: A Guide by ISBN: 9780838637364Date: 1997-12-01This reference work contains a list of three hundred francophone women directors from all over the world, and the titles of their films. Dates, descriptions, and critical comments on many of the films are included, as well as a glossary of film terms, questions for film analysis, sample syllabi, and an extensive bibliography.
The History of French Literature on Film by ISBN: 9781501311840Date: 2020-12-24The History of French Literature on Film explores the key films, directors, and movements that have shaped the adaptation of works by French authors since the end of the 19th century. Across six chapters, Griffiths and Watts examine the factors that have driven this vibrant adaptive industry, as filmmakers have turned to literature in search of commercial profits, cultural legitimacy, and stories rich in dramatic potential.
Intermedial Dialogues: the French New Wave and the Other Arts- This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 1474410642Traversing the fields of literature, theatre, painting, architecture and photography, and drawing on Andre Bazin alongside recent theories of intermediality, it investigates the 'impure', intermedial aesthetics of New Wave cinema.
The Legacy of the New Wave in French Cinema by ISBN: 9781501311932Date: 2019-09-05This book is organized around a series of key moments from the past 50 years of French cinema in order to show how the meaning and legacy of the New Wave have shifted over time and how the priorities, approaches and discourses of filmmakers and film critics have changed over the years. Morrey tackles key concepts such as the auteur, the relationship of form and content, gender and sexuality, intertextuality and rhythm.
Paris in the Dark: Going to the Movies in the City of Light, 1930-1950 by - This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9781478007531Date: 2020-03-27In Paris in the Dark Eric Smoodin takes readers on a journey through the streets, cinemas, and theaters of Paris to sketch a comprehensive picture of French film culture during the 1930s and 1940s. Drawing on a wealth of journalistic sources, Smoodin recounts the ways films moved through the city, the favored stars, and what it was like to go to the movies in a city with hundreds of cinemas.
Post-Beur Cinema: North African Émigré and Maghrebi-French Filmmaking in France Since 2000 by ISBN: 9780748640041Date: 2013-07-22Through a detailed study of this transformative decade for Maghrebi-French and North African émigré filmmaking in France, this book argues for the emergence of a 'Post-Beur' cinema in the 2000s that is simultaneously global and local in its outlook.
Precarious Sociality, Ethics and Politics: French Documentary Cinema in the Early Twenty-First Century by ISBN: 9781786838421Date: 2022-08-16Precarious Sociality explores how filmmakers engage and resist the ways finance capitalism has violently reshaped reality since the late 1990s. Audrey Evrard traces the dissolution of twentieth-century class narratives into a more complete recognition of difference empowering new solidarity grounded in economic, social, and ecological precariousness.
Reframing Reality: The Aesthetics of the Surrealist Object in French and Czech Cinema by ISBN: 9781841507125Date: 2014-02-15Alison Frank looks specifically at French and Czech films, including works by Luis Buñuel, Jan Svankmajer, as well as the contemporary hit Amélie by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, in order to offer a new take on surrealist film.
Screening the Paris Suburbs: From the Silent Era to the 1990s by - This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 1526107805Date: 2018-02-06Decades before the emergence of a French self-styled 'hood' film around 1995, French filmmakers looked beyond the gates of the capital for inspiration and content. In the Paris suburbs they found an inexhaustible reservoir of forms, landscapes and social types in which to anchor their fictions, from bourgeois villas and bucolic riverside cafés to post-war housing estates and postmodern new towns. For the first time in English, contributors to this volume address key aspects of this long film history.
Screening Youth: Contemporary French and Francophone Cinema by - This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9781474449427Date: 2019-05-21Showing how the topic of 'youth' has inspired filmmakers to explore and reinvent common tropes associated with young people, the book also addresses how the representation of youth can be used to mirror the tensions - political, social, religious, economic or cultural - that agitate a society at a given time in its history.
Alice Guy Blaché: Lost Visionary of the Cinema by ISBN: 0826451586Date: 2003-10-20Alice Guy Blaché (1873-1968), the world's first woman filmmaker, was one of the key figures in the development of narrative film. From 1896 to 1920 she directed 400 films (including over 100 synchronized sound films), produced hundreds more, and was the first--and so far the only--woman to own and run her own studio plant (The Solax Studio in Fort Lee, NJ, 1910-1914).
Céline Sciamma by ISBN: 9781474440554Date: 2021-10-20Céline Sciamma is the most visible and important feminist, and lesbian, director in contemporary international filmmaking. Her fourth feature, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2019, and intervened directly in debates about the female gaze, sexuality, and specifically how to look at and make a portrait of young women. In her approach to female, non-binary and queer identities, she has focused on the need for agency, binding this imperative into her aesthetic choices and modes of filmmaking.
The Cinema of Agnès Varda by ISBN: 9780231169752Date: 2014-05-20Agnès Varda, a pioneer of the French New Wave, has been making radical films for over half a century. This volume considers her production as a whole, revisiting overlooked films like Mur, Murs/Documenteur (1980-81), and connecting her cinema to recent installation work.
The Cinema of Mia Hansen-Løve by ISBN: 9781474447676Date: 2021-02-16Since 2007 Mia Hansen-Løve has directed a series of meditative film dramas about families, love, vulnerability and growing up, all of them exceptionally attentive to film's ability to convey the passing of time, separation and loss. Exploring her move from acting, via criticism, to directing, the book first investigates the complexity of her situation as a female auteur based in France.
Éric Rohmer: A Biography by ISBN: 9780231541572Date: 2016-06-14#65533;ric Rohmer set the terms by which people watched, made, and thought about cinema for decades. This exhaustive biography uses personal archives and interviews to enrich our knowledge of Rohmer's public achievements and lesser known interests. Despite an austere approach to life, Rohmer had a voracious appetite for art, culture, and intellectual debate captured vividly in this definitive volume.
The Films of Claire Denis by ISBN: 9781848859531Date: 2014-10-01The films of Claire Denis, one of the most challenging and respected of contemporary filmmakers, probe the psyche of global citizenship, tracing the borderlines of family, desire, nationality and power. With subtlety, depth and at times minimalism and abstraction, her films - including "Chocolat", "Beau travail" and "White Material" - explore connections between national experience and individual circumstance, visualizing the complications of such dualities.
George Melies by ISBN: 9780719053955Date: 2000-09-02Before the turn of the 20th-century, even before the first cinemas, Georges Melies began making movies. He directed, edited, produced, designed and starred in over 500 films between 1896 and 1912. Elizabeth Ezra explodes several myths about Melies's role in film history. Dismantling the long-held opposition between early film and what we see today, this text locates the roots of modern narrative cinema in Melies's work, identifying techniques of editing and mise-en-scene previously thought to have originated with D.W. Griffith.
Germaine Dulac: A Cinema of Sensations by ISBN: 9780252038471Date: 2014-07-24Best known for directing the Impressionist classic The Smiling Madame Beudet and the first Surrealist film The Seashell and the Clergyman, Germaine Dulac, feminist and pioneer of 1920s French avant-garde cinema, made close to thirty fiction films as well as numerous documentaries and newsreels. Through her filmmaking, writing, and cine-club activism, Dulac's passionate defense of the cinema as a lyrical art and social practice had a major influence on twentieth century film history and theory.
Godard by ISBN: 9781844573554Date: 2010-09-16Richard Roud's Godard, first published in 1967 as 'Number One' in the seminal Cinema One series, was the first monograph on the great film-maker to be published in English, and one that reveals a unique intimacy between the author and his subject. Roud's provocative and far-reaching analysis shows an intuitive understanding of the aesthetic, intellectual and political context in which Godard worked, paying particular attention to his 'political' cinema, including the ferocious masterpiece Weekend (1967).
Identity and Memory: The Films of Chantal Akerman by ISBN: 9780809325122Date: 2003-04-21Considered to be one of the most influential auteurs in French cinema today, Chantal Akerman has had a profound impact on both feminist filmmaking discourse and avant-garde film. This collection of essays edited by Gwendolyn Audrey Foster assesses Akerman's wide-ranging oeuvre, particularly her exploration of identity and memory, and considers her development as an artist and as a social force.
Jacques Demy by ISBN: 9780719087394Date: 2015-01-01Saccharine for some, poignant for others, Jacques Demy's 'enchanted' world is familiar to generations of French audiences accustomed to watching Christmas repeats of his fairytale Peau d'âne (1970) or seeing Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac prance and pirouette in Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1966). However, beneath the apparently sugary coating of his films lie more philosophical reflections on some of the most pressing issues that preoccupy Western societies, including affect, subjectivity, self/other relations and free will. This wide-ranging book addresses many of the key aspects of Demy's cinema, including his associations with the New Wave, his unique approach to musicals, his adaptations of fairytales, his representations of gender and sexuality and his legacy as an iconic director for generations of audiences and filmmakers.
Jean Cocteau: A Life by ISBN: 9780300170573Date: 2016-09-27This passionate and monumental biography reassesses the life and legacy of one of the most significant cultural figures of the twentieth century. Unevenly respected, easily hated, almost always suspected of being inferior to his reputation, Jean Cocteau has often been thought of as a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. In this landmark biography, Arnaud narrates the life of this legendary French novelist, poet, playwright, director, filmmaker, and designer.
Jean Renoir by ISBN: 9780306804656Date: 1992-03-22This classic in the literature of cinema represents the convergence of the three leading figures of French film: Jean Renoir, universally considered the greatest French director, André Bazin, the outstanding French film critic and theorist and François Truffaut, the pioneer of la nouvelle vague. Bazin left this examination of Renoir's films unfinished when he died in 1958 Truffaut collected and edited the essays, and added a comprehensive filmography in which Bazin, Truffaut, Jacques Rivette, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, and other Cahiers du Cinéma regulars comment on the films.
Jean Renoir: a Biography by - This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9780762455966Date: 2017-01-03Jean Renoir: A Biography, is the definitive study of one of the most fascinating and creative artistic figures of the twentieth century. The French filmmaker made more than forty films from the silent era to the late '60s and today he is revered by filmmakers and seen by many as one of the greatest of all time. Renoir made acclaimed movies in France, America, India, and Italy and became a writer during the last part of his life. Drawing from unpublished or little known sources, this biography is a completely fresh approach to the maker of Grand Illusion and The Rules of the Game, redefining the very function of the movie director and simultaneously recounting the history of a century.
Truffaut at Work by ISBN: 9780714845685Date: 2005-12-01In Truffaut at Work, film expert Carole Le Berre looks beyond the usual anecdotal sources about Truffaut to reveal an inspired and inspiring portrait of one of the most influential directors of the twentieth century. She draws heavily from Truffaut's personal papers and the archives of the film studios he worked for: the book details shooting schedules, budgets, memos, letters, storyboards and transcripts of discussions with key collaborators.
- A Trip to the Moon (dir. Georges Méliès, 1902)
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- Passion of Joan of Arc (dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
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- L'Atalante (dir. Jean Vigo, 1934)
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- La Bête Humaine (dir. Jean Renoir, 1938)
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- The Rules of the Game (dir. Jean Renoir, 1939)
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- Beauty and the Beast (dir. Jean Cocteau, 1946)
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- Night and Fog (dir. Alain Resnais, 1955)
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- The Red Balloon (dir. Albert Lamorisse, 1956)
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- The 400 Blows (dir. Francois Truffaut, 1959)
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- Hiroshima Mon Amour (dir. Alain Resnais, 1959)
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- Breathless (dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
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- Chronicle of a Summer (dir. Jean Rouch & Edgar Morin, 1961)
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- Last Year at Marienbad (dir. Alain Resnais, 1961)
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- Cléo From 5 to 7 (dir. Agnès Varda, 1962)
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- Jules and Jim (dir. Francois Truffaut, 1962)
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- Umbrellas of Cherbourg (dir. Jacques Demy, 1964)
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- 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
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- Playtime (dir. Jacques Tati, 1967)
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- Weekend (dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
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- My Night at Maud's (dir. Eric Rohmer, 1969)
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- Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels (dir. Chantal Akerman, 1975)
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- Cold Water (dir. Olivier Assayas, 1994)
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- Beau Travail (dir. Claire Denis, 1999)
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- The Gleaners and I (dir. Agnès Varda, 2000)
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- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (dir. Julian Schnabel, 2007)
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- 35 Shots of Rum (dir. Claire Denis, 2010)
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- Goodbye First Love (dir. Mia Hansen-Løve, 2011)
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- Holy Motors (dir. Leos Carax, 2012)
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- Girlhood (dir. Céline Sciamma, 2014)
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- Let the Sunshine In (dir. Claire Denis, 2017)
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- 120 Beats per Minute (dir. Robin Campillo, 2017)
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- Portrait of a Lady on Fire (dir. Céline Sciamma, 2019)
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- Titane (dir. Julia Ducournau, 2021)
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Kanopy Collections - Available for Streaming at UCLA
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Additional Resources on Selected Major French Films
Cracking Gilles Deleuze's Crystal: Narrative Space-Time in the Films of Jean Renoir by ISBN: 9781474426299Date: 2018-08-01Jean Renoir is widely considered as one of the most important technical innovators and politically engaged filmmakers in cinema history. Reassessing the unique qualities of Renoir's influential visual style by interpreting his films through Gilles Deleuze's film philosophy, and through previously unpublished production files, Barry Nevin provides a fresh and accessible interdisciplinary perspective that illuminates both the consistency and diversity of Renoir's oeuvre.
Queer Enchantments: Gender, Sexuality, and Class in the Fairy-Tale Cinema of Jacques Demy by ISBN: 9780814335093Date: 2013-11-30To the uninitiated, the films of French New Wave director Jacques Demy can seem strange and even laughable, with their gaudy colour schemes and sung dialogue. Yet since the late 1990s, a generation of queer filmmakers in France have found new inspiration in Demy's cinema. In this volume, author Anne E. Duggan examines Jacques Demy's queer sensibility in connection with another understudied characteristic of his oeuvre: his recurrent use of the fairy tale.
Nothing Happens: Chantal Akerman's Hyperrealist Everyday by ISBN: 0822317230Date: 1996-02-09In Nothing Happens, Ivone Margulies presents a comprehensive study of this influential avant-garde Belgian filmmaker. Margulies grounds her critical analysis in detailed discussions of Akerman's work--from Saute ma ville, a 13-minute black-and-white film made in 1968, through Jeanne Dielman and Je tu il elle to the present.
"Chronicle of a Summer" in Documentary Film Classics by ISBN: 9780521450676Date: 1997-01-28Documentary Film Classics offers close readings on a number of major films, including "Chronicle of a Summer," the pioneering experiment in “cinéma-vérité” filmed in 1960, directed by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin.
- Cahiers du Cinéma Cahiers du Cinéma is a French film magazine co-founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca. Includes No 1-no. 157 called also t. 1-t. 27. Issued with 2 supplements per year, called Hors-série.
- Cinéma (Paris, France : 1912) Merged with: L'echo du cinéma, to form: Le cinéma et l'echo du cinéma réunis. Microfilm. Paris : L'Association pour la conservation et la reproduction photographique de la presse (ACRPP), 1969.
- Film francais French trade magazine, similar to Variety in the U.S.
- Positif French film magazine, founded in 1952 by Bernard Chardère in Lyon. It is one of two major French-language film magazines, created several months after Les Cahiers du cinéma.
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- FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals This link opens in a new window Searches film and television articles in the International Index to Film Periodicals (1972-current) and Treasures from the Film Archives, which contains silent film-era listings from archives.
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- Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window Articles and reviews from a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, circus, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television, and more. Former database title: International Index to Performing Arts (IIPA) Full Text.
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- FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals This link opens in a new window Searches film and television articles in the International Index to Film Periodicals (1972-current) and Treasures from the Film Archives, which contains silent film-era listings from archives.
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- FRANCIS This link opens in a new window An index to European journal articles in the humanities and social sciences. Multiple languages, 1972 to 2015. FRANCIS is no longer being updated.
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- JSTOR This link opens in a new window Full text of core scholarly journals from their beginning to approximately five years ago. Disciplines include botany, business, ecology, general science, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, statistics. Browsable by discipline and full-text searchable across all disciplines. UCLA has access to selected JSTOR e-books. jstore, jsotr, jrstor, jsot, Jsror, jsstor, Jstar, j-stor, jstory, jstot, Jstr, jstsor, justor, jsot, jsage, jsot, Jsror, Jsror, jsstor, J star, j-star
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- MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window Indexes worldwide publications on literature, language, linguistics, folklore, film, television, and theater from 1923 to the present. See also the MLA Directory of Periodicals.
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- Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window Articles and reviews from a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, circus, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television, and more. Former database title: International Index to Performing Arts (IIPA) Full Text.
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- Project MUSE This link opens in a new window Full text of current issues (from about 1990) of scholarly journals published by university presses, chiefly in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Browsable by discipline and full-text searchable across all disciplines. UCLA has access to Muse e-books published from 2017-present, plus a selected number of other e-book titles. Full-Text Journals, johns hopkins university, milton s. eisenhower library, Project MIse, project mus, projectmuse, moose, project moose
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- Encyclopédie du film d'histoire French language 4-volume encyclopedia covering the depiction of history on film.
- Gallica (Bibliotheque nationale de France) More than one million digitized documents (books, periodicals, manuscripts, maps, images, scores, sound recordings, etc.) at the French National Library.
- Domitor Journals Project Freely available digitized periodicals of interest for early cinema studies, representing 20 countries.
- Europeana A digitized multimedia library of the European cultural heritage: digitized books, manuscripts, photos, paintings, maps, audio and film material, newspapers, etc.
- Senses of Cinema Internet metasite with selected information on major directors and short critical articles.
Selected French Films
A Trip to the Moon (dir. Georges Méliès, 1902)
"A group of astronomers go on an expedition to the Moon.The material for A Trip to the Moon is sourced from a restored color version that had been considered lost for several decades and is presented with an original soundtrack by the French band, AIR."
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Three Films by Alice Guy Blaché (1922)
Includes: A House Divided, Canned Harmony, and Falling Leaves
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La Bête Humaine (dir. Jean Renoir, 1938)
"Part poetic realism, part film noir, the film is a hard-boiled and suspenseful journey into the tormented psyche of a workingman."
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The 400 Blows (dir. Francois Truffaut, 1959)
"THE 400 BLOWS sensitively re-creates the trials of Truffaut’s own childhood, unsentimentally portraying aloof parents, oppressive teachers, and petty crime."
Winner of Best Director and nominated for the Palm d'Or at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival. Nominated for one Academy Award (Best Writing - Directly for the Screen) and two BAFTA awards (Best Film from any Source, Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles - Jean-Pierre Léaud).
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Hiroshima Mon Amour (dir. Alain Resnais, 1959)
"A French actress and a Japanese architect engage in a brief, intense affair in postwar Hiroshima, their consuming mutual fascination impelling them to exorcise their own scarred memories of love and suffering."
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Chronicle of a Summer (dir. Jean Rouch & Edgar Morin, 1961)
"Simply by interviewing a group of Paris residents in the summer of 1960—beginning with the provocative and eternal question “Are you happy?” and expanding to political issues, including the ongoing Algerian War—Rouch and Morin reveal the hopes and dreams of a wide array of people, from artists to factory workers, from an Italian émigré to an African student."
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Cléo From 5 to 7 (dir. Agnès Varda, 1962)
"Agnes Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy."
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Umbrellas of Cherbourg (dir. Jacques Demy, 1964)
"Catherine Deneuve plays an umbrella-shop owner’s delicate daughter, glowing with first love for a handsome garage mechanic, played by Nino Castelnuovo. When the boy is shipped off to fight in Algeria, the two lovers must grow up quickly."
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Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels (dir. Chantal Akerman, 1975)
"A singular work in film history, Chantal Akerman’s JEANNE DIELMAN meticulously details, with a sense of impending doom, the daily routine of a middle-aged widow, whose chores include making the beds, cooking dinner for her son, and turning the occasional trick."
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Beau Travail (dir. Claire Denis, 1999)
"Amid the azure waters and sunbaked desert landscapes of Djibouti, a French Foreign Legion sergeant sows the seeds of his own ruin as his obsession with a striking young recruit plays out to the thunderous, operatic strains of Benjamin Britten."
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The Gleaners and I (dir. Agnès Varda, 2000)
"Agnès Varda’s extraordinary late-career renaissance began with this wonderfully idiosyncratic, self-reflexive documentary in which the French cinema icon explores the world of modern-day gleaners: those living on the margins who survive by foraging for what society throws away."
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Girlhood (dir. Céline Sciamma, 2014)
"Fed up with her abusive family situation, lack of school prospects and the “boys’ law” in the neighborhood, Marieme starts a new life after meeting a group of three free-spirited girls."
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Titane (dir. Julia Ducournau, 2021)
"With a titanium plate surgically fused to her skull following a car crash as a child, car model Alexia embarks on a wild and ultimately unpredictable journey that questions our assumptions about family, identity and love."
UCLA students, staff, and faculty access through Kanopy. Log into the campus VPN or proxy server to view video.