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Cine-file French Film Guides
From the pioneering days of the Lumière brothers' Cinématographe in 1895, France has been home to perhaps the most consistently vibrant film culture in the world, producing world-class directors and stars, and a stream of remarkable movies, from popular genre films to cult avant-garde works. Many of these have found a devoted audience outside France, and the arrival of DVD is now enabling a whole new generation to have access to contemporary titles as well as the great classics of the past.
The Ciné-files French Film Guides build on this welcome new access, offering authoritative and entertaining guides to some of the most significant titles, from the silent era to the early 21st century. Written by experts in French cinema, the books combine extensive research with the author's distinctive, sometimes provocative perspective on each film. The series will thus build up an essential collection on great French classics, enabling students, teachers and lovers of French cinema both to learn more about their favourite films and make new discoveries in one of the world's richest bodies of cinematic work.
Series editor: Ginette Vincendeau, King's College, London
Ginette Vincendeau has assembled an elite corps of film scholars to address a marvellous array of modern and classic French films with the close-up scrutiny they deserve.
- Dudley Andrew
- Author: Chris Darke
- 04 Oct 2005
- Hardback
- Price: £27.50
Explores the film's combination of genres and styles, its remarkable creation the secret agent Lemmy Caution, and uses his interviews with the director's collaborators to chronicle the film's production. This book relates to Godard's later work, setting it in the context of his career and of its influence on other filmmakers and artists.
- Author: Ginette Vincendeau
- 04 Oct 2005
- Hardback
- Price: £27.50
Released in 1995, "La Haine" is the black and white chronicle of 24 hours in the life of a mixed-race young male trio from a run-down Parisian suburb. This book provides an understanding of the context of the film's making, of the film's narrative tension, stylistic sophistication and ideological ambiguity and of its extraordinary success.
- Author: Julianne Pudduck
- 04 Oct 2005
- Hardback
- Price: £27.50
Patrice Chereau's film "La Reine Margot" presents a theatrical chiaroscuro Renaissance past where struggles for political power are entwined with plots, poisons and the pleasures and perils of the flesh. This Cine-File examines it as part of a cycle of French historical 'super-productions' including 'Cyrano de Bergerac" and "Germinal".
- Author: Susan Hayward
- 04 Oct 2005
- Hardback
- Price: £27.50
"Les Diaboliques" was a top grossing film in 1955. Clouzot shrouded his film in mystery and also changed the original story of the novel, heterosexualising the original lesbian plot. This Cine-File sets "Les Diaboliques" against the political culture of its time and demonstrates the importance of Clouzot as a master of the thriller genre.