3 U.S. credits recommended
Language of instruction: English
Since the late 19th century, Paris has been home to some of the most important inventions, developments, and transformations of the cinema. From the 1890s, with the invention of moving cinematographic images, up to the contemporary moment, the cinema has been used as a medium of entertainment, scientific discovery, artistic experimentation, political interrogation, and education in Paris. Similarly, the city itself has often served as the backdrop, the protagonist, and the theme of some of the most exciting films of the 20th century. Inspired by the fact that cinema and modern Paris were born and matured in tandem, this course offers an exploration of both the historical place of the cinema in the development of 20th-century Parisian urban culture and the way this historical definition informs the development of the cinema.
The course is divided into three parts. In the first third, the course will focus on what are known as the Golden Years of French filmmaking and film exhibition in Paris: the 1920s and 1930s. We examine the Paris works of filmmakers such as René Clair, Jean Epstein, and Marcel Carné. In each case, we look at the film movement to which the films belong, as well as the aesthetics and ideology of their image of Paris. In the second part of the course, we turn to the extraordinary output of French New Wave filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut, again with an eye to their use of the city of Paris for inspiration and storytelling. We also look at the work of the Left Bank filmmakers, such as Agnes Varda, Alain Resnais, and Marguerite Duras. In the final section, we will study examples from contemporary French cinema, beginning with the renaissance of the 1990s. In these classes, we study works by Claire Denis, Leos Carax, and Mathieu Kassovitz. The films of this period embrace concerns of contemporary French society as they are played out across a darker, less-celebrated Paris. Issues raised include homelessness, immigration, race relations, and gender discrimination.
This course also includes excursions to some of Paris’s first cinemas. In addition, we take two walking tours in which we explore the Paris that we see in the films studied, a Paris otherwise hidden from view. On these walks, students will also discover a Paris that they did not know existed.