MONT3025W: French [R]evolutions: Transformations in French Society from 1945-Now through the Eyes of Filmmakers

Through the lens of cinema and documentary film, this course explores the changes in French society from the period of the Second World War to the present day. Beginning with the trauma of the Nazi occupation, students will look at how French cinema over the years has served as a mirror on society, reflecting cultural, social, and political evolutions. Students will examine key moments in France’s history that have left a mark: the period of Nazi occupation and the conflict between collaborators and resistance fighters (as portrayed in Louis Malle’s Au Revoir les Enfants, Jacques Audiard’s Un Héros très discret or Joseph Losey’s Mr. Klein), France’s departure from Indochina (Pierre Schoendorffer’s Diên Biên Phu), the Algerian war (Gillo Pontecorvo’s La Bataille d’Alger), the cultural revolution of May 1968 (Ducastel and Martineau’s Nés en 68), evolving family models and changing visions of socialism in the 1980s (Pinoteau’s La Boum), social upheaval and exclusion in the 1990s (Kassovitz’s La Haine, Lisa Azulos’s LOL, Mounia Meddour’s Papicha). Recent film and text will engage with an exploration of contemporary France (the 2000s and 2010s) around issues such francophone multiculturalism, societal unrest (the yellow-jacket movement) and the terror attacks (Audiard’s Un Prophète, Ladj Ly’s Les Misérables, Houda Benyamina’s Divines, Emmanuel Leconte’s Humour à mort— the Charlie Hebdo attacks), but also France’s continuing mission to promote the arts and humanities and make them accessible to every socioeconomic corner of the population (e.g., through nationwide events such as the annual Fête du Cinéma, the Journées du Patrimoine, and once-a-month free access to museums). The course aims to provide students with tools for understanding a culture through an exploration of its creative artifacts.

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