Je T’Aime... Moi Non Plus: Franco-British Cinematic Relations

A series of limiting definitions have tended to delineate the Franco-British cinematic relationship. As this collection of essays reveals, there is much more to it than simple oppositions between British critical esteem for the films of France and French dismissal of ‘le cinéma British’, or the success of Ken Loach et al. at the French box office and the relative dearth of French movies on British screens. In fact, there has long been a rich and productive dialogue between these two cultures in which both their clear differences and their shared concerns have played a vital role. This book provides an overview of the history of these relations from the early days of sound cinema to the present day. The chapters, written by leading experts in the history of French, British and European cinema, provide insights into relations between French and British cinematic cultures at the level of production, exhibition and distribution, reception, representation and personnel. The book features a diverse range of studies, including: the exhibition of French cinema in Britain in the 1930s, contemporary ‘extreme’ French cinema, stars such as Annabella, David Niven and Jane Birkin and the French Resistance on British screens.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations List of Tables Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1. Franco-British Cinematic Relations: An Overview Lucy Mazdon Part I: Industry and Institutions Chapter 2. The Exhibition, Distribution and Reception of French Films in Britain in the 1930s Vincent Porter Chapter 3. The ‘Cinematization’ of Sound Cinema in Britain and the Dubbing into French of Hitchcock’s Waltzes from Vienna (1934) Charles O’Brien Chapter 4. Une Entente Cordiale? A Brief History of the Anglo-French Film Coproduction Agreement, 1965–1979 Justin Smith Chapter 5. Channel-crossing Festivals: The Cases of the French Film Festival U.K. and Dinard’s Festival du Film Britannique Cécile Renaud Chapter 6. The Language of Love? How the French Sold Lady Chatterley’s Lover (Back) to British Audiences Catherine Wheatley Part II: Reception and Perceptions Chapter 7. Disciplining the Nouvelle Vague: Censoring A Bout de Souffle and Other Early French New Wave Films (1956–1962) Daniel Biltereyst Chapter 8. The Reception of the Nouvelle Vague in Britain Geoffrey Nowell-Smith Chapter 9. ‘New Waves, New Publics?’: The Nouvelle Vague, French Stars and British Cinema Sarah Street Chapter 10. Mirror Image: French Reflections of British Cinema Ian Christie Chapter 11. ‘Incredibly French’?: Nation as an Interpretative Context for Extreme Cinema Melanie Selfe Chapter 12. British Audiences and 1990s French New Realism: La Vie Rêvée des Anges as Cinematic Slum Realism Ingrid Stigsdotter Part III: Personnel and Performance Chapter 13. ‘The Meaning of That French Word Chic’: Annabella’s Franco-British Stardom Jonathan Driskell Chapter 14. ‘Those Frenchies Seek Him Everywhere’: David Niven in Franco-British Cinematic Relations Cristina Johnston Chapter 15. Truffaut in London Robert Murphy Chapter 16. Jane Birkin: From English Rose to French Icon Leila Wimmer Chapter 17. The French Resistance Through British Eyes – From ’Allo ’Allo! to Charlotte Gray Ginette Vincendeau Chapter 18. ‘In the Ghetto’: Space, Race and Marginalization in French and British ‘Urban’ Films La Haine and Bullet Boy Jim Morrissey Notes on Contributors References Index

About the Author :
Lucy Mazdon is a Reader in Film Studies at the University of Southampton. She has written widely on French cinema and television and her publications include Encore Hollywood: Remaking French Cinema (BFI, 2000), France on Film: Reflections on Popular French Cinema (Wallflower, 2001) and The Contemporary Television Series (EUP, 2005).

Review :
“These diverse, thoughtfully arranged essays show how geographical proximity and overlapping histories have shaped the two countries’ film cultures by opening up new layers of meaning. This collection makes a vital contribution to the film literature of both countries by demonstrating how fruitful relational studies of cinema can be. Si, je t’aime.”  ·  Journal of British Cinema and Television “This is a rich and academically relevant collection … that offers an engagement with a full spectrum of disciplinary interests … The running filmography that is established across the volume will be a great resource to film scholars and students, and the range of methodological approaches deployed is genuinely inspiring in terms of its diversity, application and results.”  ·  Sue Harris, Queen Mary University of London “[T]here is much here to inform the specialist and please the aficionado. This is a welcome addition to the fields of reception studies, French and British film history and culture, and transnational film studies.”  ·  Professor Elizabeth Ezra, University of Stirling