'Gently does it: Ethnicity and cultural identity in Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau's Drôle de Félix (2000)'

Abstract

This article argues that Ducastel and Martineau's Drôle de Félix (2000) marked a new departure for representations of people of North African origin within French film. It analyses how the lead character's journey from Dieppe to Marseilles allows the filmmakers to probe the parameters of ethnicity and sexuality throughout France's provinces, and interrogates its portrait of France and construction of Frenchness. Notions of family within the film and Félix's place within fin-de-siècle France are also considered, and an important literary precursor to Félix's road trip is identified.