ARTH 13
Masterpieces of French Cinema
Last Offered n/a

This course is not offered in the current catalog

It is well known that France, a small country of 65 million inhabitants, is the world’s third largest film producer, after the U.S. and India. This class proposes a look at some of the highlights of that national cinema, from the 1930s to the present day. Can the term, “masterpiece,” borrowed from the history of art, be applied to film? If so, what are the criteria for judging a masterpiece? Why is it that Jean Renoir produced a string of masterpieces in France in the 1930s and in the U.S. in the 1940s, only mediocre fare? Can we consider Henri-Georges Clouzot’s 1943 film, Le Corbeau [The Raven] a masterpiece, if we know that the film is ideologically compromised because produced by the occupying German forces? Is age a pre-requisite for considering a work of art a masterpiece? What is the difference between a masterpiece and a commercial success? Are there any French women who have created masterpieces in film? Finally, can we discern any common elements in the background of filmmakers who produce great films? The class will focus primarily on examples of the genre, art cinema, and will feature works by the following filmmakers: Renoir, Clouzot, Carné, Bresson, Godard, Varda, Kurys, Dumont and Kechiche.