With its focus on sites where identities were forged and contested over crucial decades in Montreal's history, this collection illuminates the cultural complexity and richness of a modernizing city. Readers will discover the links between identity, place, and historical moment as they meet vagrant women, sailors in port, unemployed men of the Great Depression, elite families, shopkeepers, and reformers, among others. This fascinating study explores the intersections of state, people, and the voluntary sector to elucidate the processes that took people between homes and cemeteries, between families and shops, and onto the streets.

Formative writings by French avant-garde filmmaker Chris Marker It is hard to imagine French cinema without La Jetée (1962), the time-travel short feature by the reclusive French filmmaker Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve, better known as Chris Marker. He not only influenced artists ranging from David Bowie to J. G. Ballard but also inspired the cult film 12 Monkeys. Marker’s influence expanded beyond his own films through his writings for the French monthly Esprit as well as anthologies and newly founded film publications. This first English translation of Marker’s early writings on film brings together reviews and essays, published between 1948 and 1955, that span the topics of film style, adaptation, and ideology, as well as animation and the debates surrounding 3-D and wide-screen technologies, ranging from late silent-era films to postwar Hollywood’s efforts to contend with the rise of television. Readers will find commentary on Laurence Olivier’s 1944 screen adaptation of Henry V, a scathing review of Robert Montgomery’s Lady in the Lake (1947), critiques of Walt Disney productions, a discussion of the pitfalls of prioritizing commercial success over aesthetic values, and more. An indispensable resource for cinephiles and scholars alike, these texts document the emergence of Marker’s critical voice and situate him alongside such contemporaries as André Bazin and Eric Rohmer, as well as the future French New Wave figures Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. They show how his remarks on individual films open onto his engagement with films as social and cultural phenomena.

Negotiating Identities in 19th- and 20th-Century Montreal illuminates the cultural complexity and richness of a modernizing city and its people. The chapters focus on sites where identities were forged and contested over crucial decades in Montreal's history. Readers will discover the links between identity, place, and historical moment as they meet vagrant women, sailors in port, unemployed men of the Great Depression, elite families, shopkeepers, reformers, notaries, and social workers, among others. This is a fascinating study that explores the intersections of state, people, and the voluntary sector to elucidate the processes that took people between homes and cemeteries, between families and shops, and onto the streets. This book will be of interest to a wide range of social and cultural historians, critical geographers, students of gender studies, and those wanting to know more about the fascinating past of one of Canada's most lively cities.