French Blockbusters - (Traditions in World Cinema) by Charlie Michael (Paperback)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br><p>Cutting across a swath of recent French-produced cinema, <em>French Blockbusters</em> offers the first book-length consideration of the theoretical implications, historical impact and cultural consequences of a recent grouping of popular films that are rapidly changing what it means to make - or to see - a 'French' film today.</p><p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><p>The digitised spectacles conjured by a word like 'blockbuster' may create a certain cognitive dissonance with received ideas about French cinema - long celebrated as a model for philosophical, economic and aesthetic resistance to globalised popular culture. While the Gallic 'cultural exception' remains a forceful current to this day, this book shows how the onslaught of Hollywood mega-franchises and new media platforms since the 1980s has also provoked an overtly commercialised response from French producers eager to redefine the stakes and scope of their own traditions. </p> <p></p> <p>From English-language action vehicles like <em>Valérian</em> and the <em>City of a Thousand Planets</em> (Besson, 2017) to revisionist historical films like <em>Of Gods and Men</em> (Beauvois, 2011) and crowd-pleasing comedies like <em>Intouchables</em> (Tolédano & Nakache, 2011), the variously filiated 'local blockbusters' from contemporary France brim with the seeds of cultural contradiction, but also with the energy of a forceful counter-history. </p> <p></p> <p>Cutting across a swath of recent French-produced cinema, <em>French Blockbusters</em> offers the first book-length consideration of the theoretical implications, historical impact and cultural consequences of a recent grouping of popular films that are rapidly changing what it means to make - or to see - a 'French' film today.</p><p/><br></br><p><b> From the Back Cover </b></p></br></br>The digitised spectacles conjured by a word like 'blockbuster' may create a certain cognitive dissonance with received ideas about French cinema - long celebrated as a model for philosophical, economic and aesthetic resistance to globalised popular culture. While the Gallic 'cultural exception' remains a forceful current to this day, this book shows how the onslaught of Hollywood mega-franchises and new media platforms since the 1980s has also provoked an overtly commercialised response from French producers eager to redefine the stakes and scope of their own traditions. Cutting a swath through recent French-produced cinema, French Blockbusters offers the first book-length consideration of the theoretical implications, historical impact and cultural consequences of a recent grouping of popular films that are rapidly changing what it means to make - or to see - a 'French' film today. From English-language action vehicles like Valérian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Besson, 2017) to revisionist historical films like Of Gods and Men (Beauvois, 2011) and crowd-pleasing comedies like Intouchables (Tolédano & Nakache, 2011), the variously filiated 'local blockbusters' from contemporary France brim with the seeds of cultural contradiction, but also with the energy of a forceful counter-history. Charlie Michael earned his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and currently teaches film and media studies in the Atlanta area. He co-edited the Directory of World Cinema: France (2013) and his work has also appeared in SubStance, The Velvet Light Trap, Quebec Studies, French Politics, Culture & Society, and A Companion to Contemporary French Cinema.<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><p>Charlie Michael is Assistant Professor of Film at Georgia Gwinnett College outside Atlanta. He is the author of French Blockbusters: Cultural Politics of a Transnational Cinema (Edinburgh UP, 2019) and the co-editor of the Directory of World Cinema France (Intellect, 2013). His work has also appeared or is forthcoming in journals such as SubStance, The Velvet Light Trap, Quebec Studies, and Transnational Screens. His current projects include a monograph on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (under contract with Routledge) and a two-volume, co-edited collection of essays called The Other French New Wave.<p>
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