The Algerian War Era Through a Twenty-First Century Lens: French Films 2005--2007
Item
-
Title
-
The Algerian War Era Through a Twenty-First Century Lens: French Films 2005--2007
-
Identifier
-
d_2009_2013:00bb7650f3bb:11358
-
identifier
-
11692
-
Creator
-
Wallenbrock, Nicole Beth,
-
Contributor
-
Jerry Carlson
-
Date
-
2012
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Film studies
-
Abstract
-
This dissertation addresses French films made between 2005 and 2007 in which the Algerian War serves as a cinematic subject and setting. The Algerian War as a film genre has never been more significant than post-2005; in fact, ten films (either set during the war or that make important reference to the conflict) were made between 2005 and 2007, more than in any previous decade. My project thus examines the reasons for the frequency of the Algerian War in cinema during this time period. The policies of Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, the rise of second and third-generation North-African immigrants, and the revelation through recent literature and media of previously unknown acts of torture that took place during the Algerian War increased interest in the subject. I investigate how these historical phenomena surface directly and indirectly in contemporary cinema, revealing the current place of the Algerian War in the popular imagination. In chapter 1, I generally discuss all Algerian-War films before 2005, presenting the New Wave as a development concurrent with the war in a study of Le petit soldat (made in 1960 released in 1963) and Muriel ou le temps d'un retours (1963). The chapter concludes with an investigation of the reception of the Italian-Algerian production La Battaglia di Algeri (1966) in France. In the following three chapters, I place recent films in thematic pairs: Chapter 2 The PTSD flashback: Cache (2005) and Mon Colonel (2006), Chapter 3 Victim or Perpetrator?: L'ennemi intime (2007) and La trahison (2005), Chapter 4 The Child Immigrant and the Child Witness: Michou d'Auber (2007) and Les Cartouches Gauloises (2007). These films alter, amplify, and adjust the meaning of the war period to correspond to recent historical findings and a changing political climate in the twenty-first century. As a multicultural French population confronts the legacy of colonialism with growing magnitude in the streets, the classrooms, and courts, a study of the concurrent cinema is imperative. These films represent a discourse in which memory and nationalism intersect, critiquing the past and present.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
2009_2013.csv
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
-
Program
-
French
