Following on from Phil Powrie's French Cinema in the 1980s: Nostalgia and the Crisis of Masculinity (Clarendon Press, 1997), this collection of essays, which brings together scholars in the UK and the USA, focuses on continuity with the 1980s in terms of genres and preoccupations, such as definitions of a national cinema, the heritage film, gay/lesbian issues, and ethnic issues. But it also focuses on key differences: new types of heritage film, whether postcolonial or heritage pastiche; the newly emerging genre of cinema de banlieue; and the focus on community and political reflection.

To a large extent, the story of French filmmaking is the story of moviemaking. From the earliest flickering images of the late nineteenth century through the silent era, Surrealist influences, the Nazi Occupation, the glories of the New Wave, the rebirth of the industry in the 1990s with the exception culturelle, and the present, Rémi Lanzoni examines a considerable number of the world's most beloved films. Building upon his 2004 best-selling edition, the second edition of French Cinema maintains the chronological analysis, factual reliability, ease of use, and accessible prose, while at once concentrating more on the current generation of female directors, mainstream productions such as The Artist and The Intouchables, and the emergence of minority filmmakers (Beur cinema).

The second edition of this innovative textbook brings together leading scholars to provide detailed analyses of twenty-two key films within the canon of French cinema, from the 1920s to the 1990s. Films discussed include: * masterpieces such as Renoir's La Bete Humaine and Carne's Les Enfants du Paradis * popular classics such as Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot and Ma Nuit chez Maud * landmarks of the New Wave such as Les 400 Coups and A bout de souffle * important films of the 1990s such as Nikita and La Haine The films are considered in relation to such issues as the history of French cinema, the social and cultural contexts of their production and reception, the relationship with Hollywood cinema, gender politics, authorship and genre. Each article is accompanied with a guide to further reading and a filmography of the director, and the new edition also includes a fully revised introduction and a bibliography on French cinema.

Following on from Phil Powrie's French Cinema in the 1980s, this collection of essays on French films in the 1990s focuses on continuity with the 1980s in terms of genres and preoccupations, but it also focuses on key differences.

This revised and updated edition of a successful and established text provides a much-needed historical overview of French cinema from its roots through to the political and social developments in the 1990s and beyond.

The book focuses on the interest in socio-political themes that marked many French film productions of the 1990s and early 2000s. In order to underline the main characteristics and the originality of these feature films (political fictions), the author addresses the following questions: o How can one explain the renewed interest in contemporary French society? o To what extent can political fictions be described as political? o What is the contribution of political fictions to what some critics and scholars have described as a new type of realism? Showing the World to the World primarily addresses to the critical and socio-political context in which political fictions were made and released. With these parameters in mind, the book then moves on to in-depth discussions of films that have already attracted some attention, such as Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine and Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau’s Drôle de Félix, as well as lesser known works, Siegrid Alnoy’s Elle est des nôtres and Jean-Marc Moutout’s Violence des échanges en milieu tempéré being some examples. Showing the World to the World makes an original contribution to theoretical debates on political cinema and to the field of French film studies. The study targets students and academic researchers as well as individuals with a keen interest in contemporary French cinema.

Women's filmmaking in France has been a source of both delight and despair. On the one hand, the numbers are impressive – over 250 feature-length films were made by over 100 women directors in France in the 1980s and 1990s. On the other hand, despite the heritage of French feminism, French women directors characteristically disclaim their gender as a significant factor in their filmmaking. This incisive study provides an informative, critical guide to this major body of work, exploring the boundaries between personal films (intimate psychological dramas relating to key stages in life) and genre films (which demonstrate women's ability to appropriate and rework popular genres). It analyzes the effects of postfeminism, women's desire to enter the mainstream, and the impact of a new generation of filmmakers, enabling readers to take stock of the wealth and diversity of women's contribution to French cinema during the 1980s and 1990s.