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Paper Topic: The Impact of the French New Wave
Communication Arts 455: French Film
Length: 8-10 pages
Due Decmeber 11, 1:00 pm
Please hand in both an electronic and a hard copy of your paper.
Topic: The Critical Reception of a French New Wave Film
Research the American and French critical reception of one of the following films:
Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais, 1959)
400 Blows / Les Quatre Cent Coups (François Truffaut, 1959)
Breathless / A bout de souffle (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
Cleo from 5 to 7 / Cléo de 5 à 7 (Agnès Varda, 1961)
Lola (Jacques Demy, 1961)
My Life to Live / Vivre sa vie (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962)
Some of the questions you might want to address include: In general, how did critics respond to the New Wave? Were the films of the New Wave met with approval and excitement, hostility, or a variety of responses? Did critics comment primarily on the film’s themes or were they attentive to narrative and style, as well? Did critics seek to identify the “authorial signature” of the film’s director, reflecting an egangement with the politique d’auteur? Did the critical reception of the film differ in France and the U.S.? Did critics understand such films as Hiroshima, mon amour as part of a movement or did they respond to each film individually upon its release?
After you have chosen your film, go to Memorial Library and gather at least twenty articles. Feel free to ask the wonderful reference librarians for help. Look for reviews in film journals (Sight & Sound, Film Quarterly), trade publications (such as Variety), and magazines (Time, Newsweek, Life, The New Yorker, etc.). A good place to start is the Film/Literature Index, housed in the reference room of Memorial Library. You may need to order articles from Inter Library Loan, so be sure to start your research right away. If you can read French, examine reviews in Cahiers du cinéma, Positif, Le Monde, L’Express, etc. If you cannot read French, look for translated articles in the following publications:
Cahiers du cinéma: the 1950s. Ed. Jim Hillier. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1985. [Contains a useful roundtable discussion on Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima, mon amour(1959).]
Cahiers du cinéma: the 1960s. Ed. Jim Hillier. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1986. [Contains many articles on the state of the New Wave.]
Douchet, Jean. The French New Wave. New York: D.A.P., 1998. [Contains many reviews of New Wave films published in a variety of French film journals and newspapers.]
Positif, 50 Years: Selections from the French Film Journal. Edited by Michel Ciment and Laurence Kardish. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2002. [Contains reviews of Hiroshima, mon amour and Cleo from 5 to 7.
Once you have read and thought carefully about the articles, construct a thesis about the reception of the film you chose and then support your argument with evidence from the criticism.
Please use a consistent citation style, either Chicago or MLA.
Good luck.
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