This class is designed to provide students in introduction to French cinema both as an art form and as it relates to the political and social contexts of France. The course will cover a variety of schools, periods and genres including Poetic Realism, cinema of the Resistance, the New Wave, gangster films, Road Movies, documentaries, and contemporary Beur and banlieue cinema. Students will complete regular short “response” writing assignments as well as one scene analysis. It is strongly suggested that you watch the film on which you write your scene analysis at least once outside of class. We will see films by Renoir, Carné, Tati, Melville, Godard, Varda, Malle, Guédiguian, Dridi, Kassovitz and Ferrouki.