Contemporary French Cinema

For this essay, I was restricted to 1000 words and had to write about contemporary French cinema. I had to apply elements of the French New Wave, and the Cinéma du Look movement to three different films. It received a 2:1.

To understand the development of contemporary French cinema it’s important to have a grasp on the French New Wave, and the Cinéma du Look movement. Both movements contain highly stylised, experimental films that branch away from traditional filmmaking conventions through their editing, visuals, and narrative. Conventional iconography for these movements consists of jump cuts, handheld cameras, and hard hitting coming-of-age realist narratives. These films are often shot on location, featuring working-class  marginalised characters, during the midst of a depression, with untrained actors. It can be described as a “cultural phenomenon, resulting from economic, political, aesthetic, and social trends that developed in the 1950s.” (Nuepert 2007). 

Contemporary French cinema can be described by “films produced according to innovative formulae, connected to the past yet versatile, adapting to the changing appetites of the twenty-first century” (Palmer 2011). Reflecting on elements of its predecessors, modern cinema can blend elements of new and old to create new films for a modern-day audience. Contemporary French cinema goes against traditional representations of France, focusing upon multiculturalism, poverty, and power. Like the French New Wave, contemporary French cinema focuses upon realist narratives with themes such as police brutality, feminism, sexuality, and representation of ethnic minorities. These films “destabilize and rearticulate the “national” of French cinema and invite spectators to acknowledge the multicultural nature of contemporary, postcolonial French society.” (King, 2017) 

This brochure will focus on a variety of works of contemporary cinema, how the stylism from the past is used and expanded upon, as well as how the mix of realism cinema, French popular culture and multiculturalism create a bricolage of multiple genres resulting in a new cinematic hybrid. I will be discussing three films: La Haine (1995, Mathieu Kassovitz), Un Prophète (2009, Jacques Audiard) and Girlhood (2014, Céline Sciamma). The three films similar in their mise-en-scene, cinematography, and narrative themes, featuring ethnic minority characters and their struggles with their French identity. We are given an insight into how these characters and locations are treated by society, as well as what the characters must do to survive their poverty.  

La Haine/Hate 

La Haine is set in a twenty-four-hour period, detailing the lives of three young boys from three diverse backgrounds – Vinz is Jewish, Said is an Arab and Hubert is Afro-French. The characters lack a ‘pure’ French identity, much like the concrete jungle they are trapped within. Opening with documentary footage showing riots of les banlieues of Paris, La Haine deals with police brutality, racism, and poverty, showing the effects marginalisation has in the form of real-life riots. When the characters enter the city, they are viewed as alien which is supported by Balshaw (1999) – “The suburbs became a cul-de-sac, as much social as spatial. Their specificities have become the unemployment and the divorce rates, the low percentage of children in full-time education and the number of immigrants.” The characters are mocked, and Hubert and Said are tortured by authority. When the trio gets into a fight, it clearly represents the urban marginalised lifestyle creeping in and threatening those of higher social status. The film incorporates many French New Wave motifs in its mise-en-scene, which exemplifies its themes. For example, the black and white visuals are symbolic of the binary oppositions found throughout the film (i.e., poverty vs wealth, authority vs marginalised groups). Shooting on location emphasises the realist narrative, and the jump-cuts show the passing of time. 

Un Prophète/A Prophet 

Un Prophète is a hard hitting French crime-drama about a young half Arab half French man – Malik El Djebena – being sentenced to six years in prison for attacking police officers. Malik lacks a ‘pure’ French identity, making him an outsider to those in prison. The hierarchy within the prison is a metaphor for the one in society, whether it is the concrete walls of les banlieues or a jail cell, there will always be binary oppositions that cannot be broken. For example, Corsicans dominate the prison, with Arabs being marginalised. In this instance Corsicans represent ‘authority’ (having control over other inmates) and Arabs represent a minority, just as they are in French society – reinforced by the police brutality shown early in the film. Un Prophète exists to prove how social conditions are a breeding ground for smarter, more violent criminals, “the inequitable distribution of power itself generates violence and divisiveness’ and the hierarchical power structure of the multilingual prison environment breeds violence.” (King 2017). A French New Wave motif – handheld cameras – is used to give the film a realist, documentary feeling which provides authenticity for the film’s messages. While the film may be a work of fiction, the realist narrative is something that could easily happen in these oppressive environments. 

Girlhood 

Girlhood is a coming-of-age movie centred around an Afro-French teen growing up in les banlieues. Similarly, to La Haine, the film deals with race, poverty, class, and the effects of marginalisation. While Girlhood is made years after La Haine, les banlieues are still synonymous with race, poverty, violence, and class, showing the French government’s neglect of its most marginalised citizens. Balshaw (1999) supports this point, claiming; “The banlieues are therefore powerful constructs of history and politics, but their depiction in literature, media and film also contributes to the perception of them as dangerous places.” When Marieme joins a gang, she is racially profiled once she enters a clothes shop. This is due to the media’s construction of ethnic minorities within Paris, she is automatically assumed to be a thug and a thief. It does not matter where she goes, her poverty will follow her and the only time she is free of her poverty is at the end of the film, when she abandons her responsibility. The mise-en-scene is conventional for realism cinema, the film is shot on location in France. Conventional with the New Wave way of filmmaking, the actors are not trained, which makes their way of playing these characters more authentic. Appealing to a modern-day audience, the film uses Rihanna’s ‘Diamonds,’ that came out two years before. The use of this song represents the multiculturalism found within les banlieues, rejecting a traditional French representation  

Filmography 

La Haine dir. Mathieu Kassovitz (Canal+,1995) 

Un Prophete dir. Jacques Audiard (UGC Distribution, 2009) 

Girlhood dir. Céline Sciamma (Pyramide Distribution, 2014) 

Bibliography 

Neupert, Richard John. A History of the French New Wave Cinema, University of Wisconsin Press, 2007 

Palmer, Tim, Brutal Intimacy: Analyzing Contemporary French Cinema, Wesleyan University Press, 2011 

King, Gemma. Decentring France: Multilingualism and Power in Contemporary French Cinema, Manchester University Press, 2017. 

Balshaw, Maria. Urban Space and Representation, Pluto Press, 1999