Where is France in French Cinema, 1976–2013?. Issue 2 (October 2015)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Where is France in French Cinema, 1976–2013?. Issue 2 (October 2015)
- Main Title:
- Where is France in French Cinema, 1976–2013?
- Authors:
- Long, Christian B.
- Abstract:
- Abstract : Using ArcGIS, this article maps the narrative locations of French cinema's box office successes and César du meilleur film winners against a self-consciously international version of prestige, the French submission for best foreign language film at the Oscars from 1976 (when the Césars began) to 2012. Mapping domestic consumption and prestige against the for-American-consumption vision of prestige and possible box office appeal will identify the settings that are associated with domestic and international locations of Frenchness. Do films that succeed at the box office connect themselves to France's main population centers—Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Lille—or to less-populated and economically vibrant regions, as with Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis (2008) in Bergues? To what extent do prestige films seek out marginalized areas in which to set their stories, as in the Paris banlieues of La Haine (1996) or Sète in La Graine et le mullet (2008)? Do the films that France proposes to the Oscar voters address an imagined American preference for one part of France—Paris—over another, or do they turn to other, less globally-integrated locations? Where are the overlaps among these three categories? And where are the empty spaces that neither box office nor prestige address? This article will be a spatial history, drawing on Franco Moretti's 'distant reading' approach to groups of films to demonstrate the critical potential for mapping narrative locations as a way to conceive of theAbstract : Using ArcGIS, this article maps the narrative locations of French cinema's box office successes and César du meilleur film winners against a self-consciously international version of prestige, the French submission for best foreign language film at the Oscars from 1976 (when the Césars began) to 2012. Mapping domestic consumption and prestige against the for-American-consumption vision of prestige and possible box office appeal will identify the settings that are associated with domestic and international locations of Frenchness. Do films that succeed at the box office connect themselves to France's main population centers—Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Lille—or to less-populated and economically vibrant regions, as with Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis (2008) in Bergues? To what extent do prestige films seek out marginalized areas in which to set their stories, as in the Paris banlieues of La Haine (1996) or Sète in La Graine et le mullet (2008)? Do the films that France proposes to the Oscar voters address an imagined American preference for one part of France—Paris—over another, or do they turn to other, less globally-integrated locations? Where are the overlaps among these three categories? And where are the empty spaces that neither box office nor prestige address? This article will be a spatial history, drawing on Franco Moretti's 'distant reading' approach to groups of films to demonstrate the critical potential for mapping narrative locations as a way to conceive of the multiple nations—in this case France—that cinema imagines for its domestic and international audiences. … (more)
- Is Part Of:
- International journal of humanities and arts computing. Volume 9:Issue 2(2015)
- Journal:
- International journal of humanities and arts computing
- Issue:
- Volume 9:Issue 2(2015)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 9, Issue 2 (2015)
- Year:
- 2015
- Volume:
- 9
- Issue:
- 2
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2015-0009-0002-0000
- Page Start:
- 180
- Page End:
- 195
- Publication Date:
- 2015-10
- Subjects:
- ArcGIS -- distant reading -- French cinema -- film locations -- cinematic cartography
Humanities -- Data processing -- Periodicals
Arts -- Data processing -- Periodicals
001.30285 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.euppublishing.com/journals ↗
http://www.eupjournals.com/journal/ijhac ↗ - DOI:
- 10.3366/ijhac.2015.0148 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1753-8548
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 425.xml