FLM 161 — 90 Years of French Cinema
Quarter: Summer
Instructor(s): Mick LaSalle
Date(s): Jun 26—Aug 14
Class Recording Available: No
Class Meeting Day: Thursdays
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Class Meeting Time: 6:30—9:00 pm (PT)
Please Note: No class on July 24
Tuition: $420
Refund Deadline: Jun 28
Unit(s): 1
Status: Open
Quarter: Summer
Day: Thursdays
Duration: 7 weeks
Time: 6:30—9:00 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jun 26—Aug 14
Unit(s): 1
Tuition: $420
Refund Deadline: Jun 28
Instructor(s): Mick LaSalle
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Recording Available: No
Status: Open
Please Note: No class on July 24
Two things have been true of French movies since the Lumière Brothers invented a camera in 1895 and started making their first films: 1) French cinema has been consistently strong, with no stagnant periods; 2) French cinema has been very different from American cinema, with America usually emphasizing violence and the world of external struggle and France more interested in the personal, the emotional, and the human. Yet despite these differences, both cinemas have been in an ongoing century-long conversation, each borrowing from and influencing the other.
In this course, students will examine a cross-section of French films, starting with the 1930s (with Jean Renoir’s The Grand Illusion) all the way up to the work of directors Patrice Leconte (Ridicule), Anne Fontaine (Gemma Bovery), and Mia Hansen-Løve (One Fine Morning). The course will show how the French New Wave of the early 1960s influenced the American New Wave of the late 1960s (Bonnie and Clyde) and how French Poetic Realism (Port of Shadows) influenced American film noir, which in turn inspired the French film noir of the post–World War II period.
In this course, students will examine a cross-section of French films, starting with the 1930s (with Jean Renoir’s The Grand Illusion) all the way up to the work of directors Patrice Leconte (Ridicule), Anne Fontaine (Gemma Bovery), and Mia Hansen-Løve (One Fine Morning). The course will show how the French New Wave of the early 1960s influenced the American New Wave of the late 1960s (Bonnie and Clyde) and how French Poetic Realism (Port of Shadows) influenced American film noir, which in turn inspired the French film noir of the post–World War II period.
MICK LASALLE
Film Critic, Hearst Newspapers
Mick LaSalle is the author of Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood, Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man, The Beauty of the Real: What Hollywood Can Learn from Contemporary French Actresses, and Dream State: California in the Movies. He writes for the San Francisco Chronicle and other Hearst newspapers. Textbooks for this course:
There are no required textbooks; however, some fee-based online readings may be assigned.