Francophone Cinema Research Articles

Séquences: Intermediate French through Film by Michèle Bissière

THE FRENCH REVIEW, Vol. 87, No. 1, October 2013 Printed in U.S.A. Methods and Materials edited by Sarah Jourdain 195 Bissière, Michèle. Séquences: Intermediate French through Film. 2nd ed. Boston: Heinle Cengage, 2013. ISBN 978-1-111-35416-9. Pp. 408. $121. Movies are one of the most powerful tools in second language education. They allow instructors to introduce their students to a whole array of cultural aspects. Séquences proves to be a great tool to expose students to the complexities of French and Francophone identities. The book is divided into ten chapters, including one preliminary chapter introducing the vocabulary necessary to talk about films, along with a brief historical survey of French and Francophone cinema throughout the years. Each following chapter centers around a particular movie: L’auberge espagnole for a discussion on student life, Rue Cases-Nègres on roots, Persépolis on the transition between teenage years and adulthood, Le Placard on professional life, Indochine on politics and personal life, Chaos on the relationship between men and women, Entre les murs on school and society, Le dîner de cons on entertainment, and Tableau ferraille on private and public life. Each chapter is divided into four parts: vocabulary, themes/culture, readings, and grammar. The four components of language instruction (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) are very well balanced throughout each chapter with introductory readings and literary excerpts, an audio CD that provides additional cultural information and authentic dialogues, grammar exercises in context , speaking activities in pairs and groups, along with topics for exposés and skits. There is also a strong emphasis on the language used in these films, be it colloquial, refined, or standard French. The lists of vocabulary words are very useful, detailed yet not overwhelming for students to master. Finally, the author provides several expansion questions that allow students to think beyond the movie itself. Séquences also includes a little folder organized by themes that contains lists of questions that regroup different movies and force students to step back and reflect on a semester’s long discussion. Even though all the movies are not equal in quality of story and actors’ performance, they all prove to be thought-provoking and very powerful triggers for interesting conversations in class. The selection allows students to reflect on French and Francophone identities—sexual, racial, ethnic, religious, etc. All in all, Séquences is a detailed, comprehensive, effective text for students who want to learn more about French and Francophone culture and develop their four skills in a fun, dynamic, and entertaining way, and it is a great tool for any instructor teaching French culture through media. Williams College (MA) Céline Brossillon-Rivera ...

Images et mirages des migrations dans les littératures et les cinémas d’Afrique francophone ed. by Françoise Naudillon, Jean Ouédraogo

épure, ce qui renforce le sentiment d’un montage idéologique donnant de la réalité une vision construite intellectuellement. Néanmoins, c’est cette déconstruction du temps qui donne au film toute sa force. University of Louisiana, Lafayette Panagnimba Parfait Bonkoungou NAUDILLON, FRANÇOISE, et JEAN OUÉDRAOGO, éd. Images et mirages des migrations dans les littératures et les cinémas d’Afrique francophone. Montréal: Mémoire d’encrier, 2011. ISBN 978-2-923713-40-3. Pp. 218. $29,50 Can. Displacement, exile, immigration: these sources of strife, both local and global, appear on a regular basis in the news media as well as the arts. Additionally, the related themes of space, identity, and hybridity are also topics currently of interest to scholars studying Francophone literature and film. Yet if such weighty concerns are certainly à la mode in these first decades of the new millennium, this does not necessarily signify that they are new, nor that researchers have yet fully unpacked their complexity, as Naudillon and Ouédraogo demonstrate in their co-edited essay collection. Spanning the time from pre-Independence to the early 2000s, countries from the Maghreb to West Africa and beyond, and even continents (Haiti and Martinique have their place, as does Western Europe), this collection of twelve essays pursues myriad avenues of inquiry into the issues surrounding various forms of migration. Moreover, it provides a valuable introduction not only to some dominant themes of African literature and film, but also a vast array of filmmakers and writers, from the well-known (among them Ousmane Sembène, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Yamina Benguigui, Laurent Cantet, Dany Laferrière, and Fatou Diome) to the less familiar, at least to this reviewer (including but not limited to Éliane de Latour, Naceur Ktari, Farida Benlyazid, and Henri Lopès). Readers will appreciate that the collection seems to make an effort to represent both genders, although the balance still tips in favor of men. The essays take a variety of approaches to the topic of (im)migration, all of which in some way answer the following questions: Who goes where? Why? What are the consequences? These queries are addressed at times with singleauthor studies, such as Névine El Nossey’s work on the textual and geographical topography of the desert in two texts by Malika Mokeddem, or Mhana Amrani’s commentary on the role of humor in tackling the serious issue of “repatriation assistance” in Mahmoud Zemmouri’s film Prends 10 000 balles et casse-toi. Other essays adopt a comparative approach, for example Clément Dessy’s look at African students’ first encounters with Paris in narratives by Ousmane Socé and Aké Loba. Also notable in this vein and representative of the collection’s title are texts penned by Jean Ouédraogo, Yolaine Parisot, Françoise Naudillon, and Stéphanie Bérard, all of whom juxtapose literature and film. Finally, some authors take a more panoramic view, particularly filmmaker Monique Crouillère in her helpful piece, “Cinéma africain et immigration,” which opens the collection with an excellent overview of African Francophone cinema. Although the essays are not always linked in terms of critical approach, geography, time period, or genre, a certain number of themes recur. As stated above, each piece asks who travels where and why. Some involve the exode rural in-country, others the harrowing trip to Europe. Some address the return home, Reviews 625 raising along the way the thorny question of just what and where “home” is. The question of identity also surfaces many times, as does that of intra- and extratextual space, whether physical, mental, or both. A number of studies contrast West and North Africa, and a few bring up the question of Francophonie versus une littérature-monde. A multidisciplinary perspective allows for the exploration of nationalism, globalization, integration, hybridity, and multiculturalism, which the authors handle with considerable insight and skill. Images and Mirages represents a welcome addition to the field of Francophone studies that is sure to interest novices and experts alike. University of the Cumberlands (KY) Laura Dennis PANH, RITHY, réal. Duch ou le maître des forges de l’enfer. CDP, 2012. Le 3 f...

New Spaces for French and Francophone Cinema

New Spaces for French and Francophone Cinema

Sapphism on Screen: Lesbian Desire in French and Francophone Cinema

Sapphism on Screen: Lesbian Desire in French and Francophone Cinema

Sapphism on Screen: Lesbian Desire in French and Francophone Cinema

Sapphism on Screen: Lesbian Desire in French and Francophone Cinema

Sapphism on Screen: Lesbian Desire in French and Francophone Cinema by Lucille Cairns

866 Reviews the rejection of literarymovements and stated doctrines. Noel's poetry interrogates identity,time, and thepower and failings of language. Itsmaterialism emerges from his intense engagement with the physical, and his insistence on the bodily basis of thought as he explores mental space and processes. La Chute des temps(I983) and L'Ete languemorte (I982), included here along with the short text 'encore', are among Noel's most significantworks, exemplifying his poetic preoccupations and individual style. The long texts are divided into three cantos and, in La Chute des temps, two intercalated 'counter-cantos'. The short, unpunctuated lines lead to frequent instances of enjambment that contribute both touncertainty of interpretation and to a sense of acceleration, 'falling' (discussed by Rothwell, pp. I8-23), or, touse Noel's preferred term, 'precipitation'. Noel's writing performs the passing of time even as itattempts to lay itbare. He writes of poetry that 'quelque chose appelle dans lemouvement I de sa propre disparition' (p. 70). La Chute des tempsisalsomotivated by a constant questioning each section opens with the line 'qui'-and it implicates a 'tu' figurewho is simultaneously an other within the text, the subject itself, the reader, and an evocation of silencing. L'Ete languemorte more clearly involves an interlocutor, and this poem explores love and desire through the lens ofmemory. Rothwell's approach as translator is 'mildly foreignising' (p. 41), which is help ful for readers of French who are offered new interpretations and ambiguities. It is particularly effective in revealing the earthiness ofNoel's language thatunderpins its more abstract formulations, and itdoes full justice toNoel's own tendency to render French strange in the experimental 'contre-chants'. The introduction traces Noel's poetic writing since the late I950s, bringing out the continuities and developments between volumes, and explicating complex images and concepts with great lucidity.An ideal introduction toNoel's poetry, italso forges links between diverse texts for those readers already familiarwith this challenging and compelling body ofwriting. UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM EMMA WAGSTAFF Sapphism on Screen: Lesbian Desire in French and Francophone Cinema. By Lu CILLE CAIRNS. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 2oo6. 223 pp. /50. ISBN 978-o-7486-2 I65-I. Despite the increase in representations of lesbians in recent French and francophone cinema, scholarly attention to these images has mainly been restricted to journal ar ticles and chapters inedited volumes. Lucille Cairns's characteristically eloquent and well-researched monograph thereforemakes a decisive contribution toknowledge in the field of 'lesbian/gay/queer cultural studies within a French language cinematic context' (p. 19 ) . Cairns's corpus spans theperiod I936-2003 and encompasses both avant-garde and mainstream productions. Moreover, she includes a range of genres, both fictional and factual, and examines short-,medium-, and full-length features. The incorporation of non-French francophone filmsallows Cairns to engage in enriching transnational comparisons, although these are unavoidably within Western cultures; Cairns was able to findjust one filmabout lesbians in a developing francophone country-Joseph Gai Ramaka's Karmen Gei fromSenegal (200I). The book is underpinned by an impressive array ofwritings on sexuality by key psychoanalysts and philosophers, including Freud, Lacan, Deleuze, Kristeva, and Foucault. Additionally, Cairns engages with a broad range of scholarly debates on filmicmediations of lesbianism. Furthermore, she includes reviews from both the MLR, I03.3, 2oo8 867 mainstream and lesbian press, thus usefully adding the voices of others to her film readings. Structurally, thebook groups the films into the fourmost prominent modes of representation: 'criminality', 'pathology', 'liminality', and 'lesbo-affirmativemise en-scenes of desire'. These chapters are then subdivided into smaller units; forex ample, Chapter 2, entitled 'bad girls', categorizes the images into the subsections of 'sin', 'vice', and 'aggression, violence, bestiality'. The reader can thus construct a nuanced understanding of thedominant representational modes of lesbianism. Some films are included inmore than one chapter, as is the case with Jean-Pierre De nis's Les Blessures assassines (2000), which simultaneously conforms to stereotypes of lesbians as both criminals (p. 33) and incestuous (p. 76), but which offers explicitly erotic 'scenes [that] are none the less ripe forthe lesbian viewer's delectation' (p. I69). Cairns thereforereflectstheambiguities of screen depictions of lesbianism which can not be pigeon-holed into single,monolithic...

Beyond the (trans)national: towards a cinema of transvergence in postcolonial and diasporic francophone cinema(s)

The aim of this article is to explore the current state of theorizing around questions of national and transnational cinema and to propose an approach which I am calling a ‘cinema of transvergence’ as a means of better understanding the complex relationship between national, transnational and postcolonial/diasporic cinemas. The work and situation of Algerian film-makers Merzak Allouache and Mahmoud Zemmouri are referred to in the final section of this article as an example of how this idea of a cinema of transvergence might be applied to postcolonial émigré or diasporic film-makers working in France.

African Francophone Cinema

African Francophone Cinema. By Diop Diop. New Orleans: UP of the South, 2004. ISBN 1-931948-19-4 paper. 106 pp.