Event

Postmodern Devices in French Contemporary Cinema.

Postmodern cinema synaesthetically associates powerful moments in the music with shooting and editing (= what the French call « effet-clip »). It is not surprising that an "authentic" postmodern director like Luc Besson should make extensive use of this third way of conceiving the soundtrack, but we will see that young authors of 'post-Nouvelle Vague' French cinema almost do the same, trying to combine the Brechtian imperatives of Modern cinema and music video effect. We will analyze some excerpts of Le grand bleu, Nikita, Jeanne d'Arc (Luc Besson), Mauvais sang (Léos Carax), Sombre (Philippe Grandrieux), Love Me (Lætitia Masson) and J'ai toujours rêvé d'être un gangster (Samuel Benchetrit).

This program was made possible through the generous sponsorship of the Department of Romance Languages and the Cinema Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania.