Unraveling French Cinema: From L'atalante to Cache

Unraveling French Cinema provides a much needed introduction to the complexities of French film for students, cineastes, and the movie-loving public. Looks at the differences between French and American national cinema Explores how French directors shape their films around two potentially divergent goals: the narration of a story and an elaboration of some theory about film itself. Demystifies the "difficulty" of French cinema, allowing the American movie-goer to enjoy films that are too often perplexing at a first viewing. Offers extended analyses of classic, New Wave, and contemporary French films—including L'Atalante, Adele H., The Rules of the Game, and Cache. Content: Chapter 1 Cinema and/as Poetry: L'Atalante's Apples as Poems (pages 13–34): Chapter 2 Cinema and the Real: Renoir's Rules (pages 35–53): Chapter 3 Cinema and/as Crime: Breaking the Law in The Children of Paradise, Pickpocket, and Breathless (pages 26–50): Chapter 4 Cinema and/as Mapping: Reorienting Ourselves Through Film (pages 83–108): Chapter 5 Cinema and/as Dream: Truffaut's “Royal Road” to Adele H. (pages 109–131): Chapter 6 Cinema and/as Hypnosis: Jacquot's Seventh Heaven (pages 132–147): Chapter 7 Cinema and/as Mourning: Anne Fontaine's How I Killed My Father (pages 148–164): Chapter 8 Cinema and/as Terror: Michael Haneke's Cache (pages 165–178): Chapter 9 Beautiful Fragments: Discontinuity and the French Cinema (pages 179–192):