Description
Book SynopsisWhen political and civil unrest threatened France’s social order in the 1950s, French cinema provided audiences a unique form of escapism from such troubled times: a nostalgic look back to the France of the nineteenth century, with costume dramas set in the age of Napoleon and the Belle Époque. Film critics, however, have routinely dismissed this period of French cinema, overlooking a very important period of political cultural history. French Costume Drama of the 1950s redresses this balance, exploring a diverse range of films including Guitry’s Napoléon (1955), Vernay’s Le Comte de Monte Cristo (1943), and Becker’s Casque d’Or (1952) to expose the political cultural paradox between nostalgia for a lost past and the drive for modernization.
Table of ContentsPart One Contexts Setting out the terrain: Genre and history Setting out the terrain: Technologies, technicians and stars
Part Two Belle Epoque Mania: Paris, the Provinces and Biopics Belle Epoque films: An overview Parisian society of the Belle Epoque through film Truth and lies and the pursuit of marriage: Love-intrigues outside Paris Making li(v)es: Belle Epoque biopics
Part Three Representing History: Epics, Courtesans and Master Narratives 1796-1888 Setting the terrain: France 1796-1888 Representing History: 1796-1814 Napoléon Bonaparte/Napoleon Restoration-July Monarchy: 1814-1848 Epic Grandeur: Part One, Philanthropists Epic Grandeur: Part Two, Avengers From the Second and the Third Republic: Innovation, Corruption and New Identities The Second Empire in the Pink The Second Empire in the Raw From Empire to Republic: A Modernised France Emerging Censoring the Classics: Bel-Ami Louis Daquin (1954; released 1957)
Part Four Fairytales, Foxy Women and Swashbuckling Heroes Costume Drama from late-Medieval to the Eighteenth Century: An Overview Mysterious Microcosms: Three Fairytales Foxy Women: Queens, Mistresses and Minxes Swashbuckling Heroes
Conclusion
