Table Of ContentNegotiating the auteur
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French Film Directors
diana holmes and robert ingram series editors
dudley andrew series consultant
Chantal Akerman marion schmid
Auterism from Assayas to Ozon: five directors kate ince
Jean-Jacques Beineix phil powrie
Luc Besson susan hayward
Bertrand Blier sue harris
Catherine Breillat douglas keesey
Robert Bresson keith reader
Leos Carax garin dowd and fergus daley
Claude Chabrol guy austin
Henri-Georges Clouzot christopher lloyd
Jean Cocteau james williams
Claire Denis martine beugnet
Marguerite Duras renate günther
Georges Franju kate ince
Jean-Luc Godard douglas morrey
Mathieu Kassovitz will higbee
Diane Kurys carrie tarr
Patrice Leconte lisa downing
Louis Malle hugo frey
Georges Méliès elizabeth ezra
François Ozon andrew asibong
Marcel Pagnol brett bowles
Maurice Pialat marja warehime
Jean Renoir martin o’shaughnessy
Alain Resnais emma wilson
Jacques Rivette douglas morrey and alison smith
Alain Robbe-Grillet john phillips
Eric Rohmer derek schilling
Coline Serreau brigitte rollet
Bertrand Tavernier lynn anthony higgins
André Téchiné bill marshall
François Truffaut diana holmes and robert ingram
Agnès Varda alison smith
Jean Vigo michael temple
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French Film Directors
Negotiating the auteur
Dominique Cabrera, Noémie Lvovsky,
Laetitia Masson and Marion Vernoux
Julia Dobson
Manchester University Press
manchester
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Copyright © Julia Dobson 2012
The right of Julia Dobson to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.
Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
isbn 978 0 7190 7218 5 hardback
First published 2012
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs
for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and
does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
Typeset in Scala with Meta display
by Koinonia, Manchester
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To Stephen, Felix and Benjamin
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Contents
list of plates page viii
series editors’ foreword ix
preface xi
acknowledgements xii
Introduction: continuing negotiations 1
1 Dominique Cabrera: intimate constructions of a ‘bonheur
collectif’ 24
2 Noémie Lvovsky: rupture and transmission 65
3 Laetitia Masson: suspect identities 105
4 Marion Vernoux: encountering difference 159
filmographies 194
index 209
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List of plates
1 Lait de la tendresse humaine (Cabrera, 2001). Films
Pelleas, Luc et Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Les Films du fleuve page 98
2 Folle embellie (Cabrera, 2004).Les Films de la croisade 98
3 La Vie ne me fait pas peur (Lvovsky, 1999). Arena Films, Canal +,
La Sept-Arte, Vega Films, TSI 99
4 Oublie-moi (Lvovsky, 1994). Les films Alain Sarde 99
5 Les Sentiments (Lvovsky, 2003). Hirsch, ARP Sélection, TF1
Films Production 100
6 Faut que ça danse! (Lvovsky, 2007). Why Not Productions,
France 2 Cinéma, Soficinéma 3, TSR, UGC, Vega Film 100
7 A Vendre (Masson, 1998). CLP, Canal +, La Sept Cinéma 101
8 Love me (Masson, 2000). Ciné Valse, Canal +, Studio Images 6 101
9 Pourquoi (pas) le Brésil (Masson, 2004). Rezo films, CNC,
Canal + 102
10 Coupable (Masson, 2008). Rezo films, Rhônes-Alpes cinéma,
Canal + 102
11 Personne ne m’aime (Vernoux, 1994). Bloody Mary Productions.
Ciné manufacture, France 2 Cinéma, Télévision Suisse
Romande 103
12 Love etc (Vernoux, 1996). Alicéleo, France 3 Cinéma,
StudioCanal 103
13 Rien à faire (Vernoux, 1999). ADR Productions, StudioCanal,
CNC, Cofimage 104
14 Rien dans les poches (Vernoux, 2008). TF1 Video, StudioCanal,
Chez Wam, CNC 104
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Series editors’ foreword
To an anglophone audience, the combination of the words ‘French’ and
‘cinema’ evokes a particular kind of film: elegant and wordy, sexy but
serious – an image as dependent upon national stereotypes as is that of
the crudely commercial Hollywood blockbuster, which is not to say that
either image is without foundation. Over the past two decades, this gener-
alised sense of a significant relationship between French identity and film
has been explored in scholarly books and articles, and has entered the
curriculum at university level and, in Britain, at A level. The study of film
as art-form and (to a lesser extent) as industry has become a popular and
widespread element of French Studies, and French cinema has acquired
an important place within Film Studies. Meanwhile, the growth in multi-
screen and ‘art-house’ cinemas, together with the development of the
video industry, has led to the greater availability of foreign-language films
to an English-speaking audience. Responding to these developments,
this series is designed for students and teachers seeking information and
accessible but rigorous critical study of French cinema, and for the enthu-
siastic filmgoer who wants to know more.
The adoption of a director-based approach raises questions about
auteurism. A series that categorises films according not to period or to
genre (for example) but to the person who directed them, runs the risk
of espousing a romantic view of film as the product of solitary inspira-
tion. On this model, the critic’s role might seem to be that of discovering
continuities, revealing a necessarily coherent set of themes and motifs
which correspond to the particular genius of the individual. This is not
our aim: the auteur perspective on film, itself most clearly articulated in
France in the early 1950s, will be interrogated in certain volumes of the
series, and, throughout, the director will be treated as one highly signifi-
cant element in a complex process of film production and reception which
includes socio-economic and political determinants, the work of a large
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