Author: Diana Holmes

The 1950s and 1960s were a key moment in the development of postwar France. The period was one of rapid change, derived from post-World War II economic and social modernization; yet many traditional …

The Third Republic, known as the ‘belle époque’, was a period of lively, articulate and surprisingly radical feminist activity in France, borne out of the contradiction between the Republican ideals …

Romance in modern times is the most widely read yet the most critically despised of genres. Associated almost entirely with women, as readers and as writers, its popularity has been argued by gender …

‘Women, Genre and Circumstance brings together a series of challenging essays which explore the complex intersections of feminism, narrative and genre. Drawing on a wide range of 19th and 20th centur …

‘Women, Genre and Circumstance brings together a series of challenging essays which explore the complex intersections of feminism, narrative and genre. Drawing on a wide range of 19th and 20th centur …

This groundbreaking book is about what ‘popular culture’ means in France, and how the term’s shifting meanings have been negotiated and contested. It represents the first theoretically informed study …

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"Plot", writes Peter Brooks, "is so basic to our very experience of reading, and indeed to our articulation of experience in general, that criticism has often passed it over in silence …

Chantal Akerman is widely acclaimed as one of the most original and important directors working in Europe today. A towering figure in women’s and feminist film-making, she has produced a diverse and …

Since the early 1950s, Chris Marker has embraced different filmmaking styles as readily as he has new technologies, and has broadened conceptions of the documentary in distinctly personal ways. He ha …

Few filmmakers have taken the principle of the ‘talking picture’ so far as Eric Rohmer, the internationally reknowned director of the Moral Tales, Comedies and Proverbs, and Tales of the Four Seasons …

Auteurism – the idea that a director of a film is its source of meaning and should retain creative control over the finished product – has been one of film studies’ most important paradigms ever sinc …

This is the first full-length study of the films of François Ozon, director of such diverse films as 8 femmes, Swimming Pool, 5×2 and Les amants criminels. Andrew Asibong’s passionate and critical an …

‘Georges Franju’ is the fullest study to date of this little-known French director, the co-founder of the Cinémathèque française, and the first book on him in English since 1967. Born in 1912, but on …

Jacques Rivette is perhaps the best-kept secret of French cinema. A founding figure in the New Wave, and at the centre of the Cahiers du cinéma team, he developed into one of the most unusual and adv …

This is a comprehensive, original and accessible account of all aspects of Jean Cocteau’s work in the cinema. It is the first major study in English to appear for over forty years and casts new light …

Jean Vigo is one of the legendary figures of world cinema, whose films ‘L’Atalante’ and ‘Zéro de conduite’ still inspire young audiences today. Film historian Michael Temple explores Vigo’s intense c …

This book provides a scholarly yet accessible account of the work of Marcel Carné, one of the great directors of classical French cinema and the key figure behind the poetic realist film movement of …

Though long ignored or dismissed by film critics and scholars, Marcel Pagnol (1895-1974) was among the most influential auteurs of his era. This comprehensive overview of Pagnol’s career, the first e …

This book provides the first detailed analysis of the work of four important contemporary directors whose work falls between the reductive labels of ‘auteur cinema’ and ‘popular cinema’. Their work i …

Bertrand Tavernier is widely recognized as the leading French filmmaker of his generation. Both a consummate artist and a controversial public figure, he is a passionate advocate for social causes an …

On one level, this book provides a concise and comprehensive account of Robert Guédiguian’s numerous films, combining meticulous stylistic analyses with historical, political, and generic context. Bu …

This is the first English-language book on controversial female director Catherine Breillat, whose films include Romance, A ma soeur! (Fat Girl), Anatomy of Hell and The Last Mistress. This volume ex …

Saccharine for some, poignant for others, Jacques Demy’s ‘enchanted’ world is familiar to generations of French audiences accustomed to watching Christmas repeats of his fairytale Peau d’âne (1970) o …

If cinema can be approached as poetry and philosophy, it is because of Jean Epstein. Cocteau, Buñuel (who was his assistant), Hitchcock, Pasolini and Godard, and theoreticians Kracauer, Deleuze and R …

Described by Giles Deleuze as ‘one of the greatest modern auteurs’, Philippe Garrel is widely acknowledged as the most significant filmmaker to emerge in France after the New Wave. His deeply persona …

Laurent Cantet is of one France’s leading contemporary directors. In a series of important films, including Human Resources, Time Out, Heading South, The Class and Foxfire, he takes stock of the mode …

This is the first full-length monograph in English about one of France’s most important contemporary filmmakers, perhaps best known in the English speaking world for his award winning Les Roseaux sau …

One of the most gifted directors of the post New Wave, Maurice Pialat is frequently compared to such legendary filmmakers as Jean Renoir and Robert Bresson. A quintessentially realist filmmaker, who, …

Despite his controversial reputation and international notoriety as a film-maker, no full-length study of Clouzot has ever been published in English. This book offers a significant revaluation of Clo …

Placing Robbe-Grillet’s filmic oeuvre in the related contexts of both his novelistic work and the different historical and cultural periods in which his films were made, from the early 1960s to the p …

Mathieu Kassovitz is arguably the most important filmmaker to have emerged from French cinema in the past two decades. As a director, his work often engages with highly controversial socio-political …

The first introduction in English devoted wholly to Varda and aimed at a general and student audience. Places Varda’s major films in the context of her whole oeuvre and follows the development of imp …

Alain Resnais, director of ‘Hiroshima mon amour’ (1959) and ‘L’Annee derniere a Marienbad’ (1961), has transformed the representation of memory, fantasy and desire in modern cinema. This illuminating …

The most complete study of Blier’s work to date, Harris traces the director’s career from the early 1960s until the present. Outlines the forms, themes and style which dominate in Blier’s work, and c …

Claire Denis is one of France’s most acclaimed and original filmmakers. Since her remarkable debut success with ‘Chocolat’ (1986), she has produced an impressive series of features which have been in …

This is the first book-length study in English on Chabrol since 1970. Chabrol has always been a neglected figure in the French New Wave but has recently been declared ‘possibly the greatest living fi …

This is the first book written on Diane Kurys. It is essential for study of women filmmakers in France/Europe. An original and concise reading of Kurys’ work. …

First in a series designed to situate and explain the films of French directors. A concise, accessible and original reading of Truffaut’s films. A timely evaluation of the films of a popular director …

Before the turn of the twentieth century, before the nickelodeon, even before the first cinemas, Georges Méliès began making movies.. Directing, editing, producing, designing, and starring in over 50 …

Accessible and original analysis of all Jean Renoir’s sound films, including those he made in Hollywood – this is the first major study to appear for a number of years and brings new light on some of …

This volume is the first to examine, in either French or English, the films of Jean-Jacques Beineix, often seen as the best example of the 1980s cinéma du look, with cult films, such as Diva and Bett …

This volume offers a new interpretation of one of the most innovative directors in the history of cinema. It is the first book to cover the whole of Godard’s career, from the French New Wave to the r …

The first book in any language to study the films of this enfant terrible of contemporary French cinema, best known for his film Les Amants du Pont Neuf. Examines key ingredients in the worlds of Car …

This is the first monograph on controversial French director Louis Malle to be published in English. Hugo Frey introduces Malle’s work through a lucid analysis of his many masterpieces, including Le …

Widely taught on Film Studies courses and in French Cultural Studies programmes Luc Besson is a popular and respected filmmaker who has achieved international fame A welcome addition to the French Fi …

Lisa Downing’s comprehensive study of the films of Patrice Leconte traces lines of continuity and revision through a body of apparently disparate films whose ‘messages’ often appear both contradictor …

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the work of Robert Bresson, one of the most respected and acclaimed directors in the history of cinema.. The first monograph on his work to appear i …

Coline Serreau became famous in 1985 when her third film, Trois hommes et un couffin (Three Men and a Baby), the most successful French film of the 1980s. She was already known in France for her majo …

The first book in English to deal exclusively with Duras’ cinema, including such films as India Song, Le Camion, and Nathalie Granger. Provides a lucid and stimulating introduction to her films, whic …

Available in paperback for the first time, this is a full-length study of the films of François Ozon, director of such diverse films as 8 femmes, Swimming Pool, 5×2 and Les amants criminels. Andrew A …

This is the first book-length study in English on Chabrol since 1970. Chabrol has always been a neglected figure in the French New Wave but has recently been declared ‘possibly the greatest living fi …

Claire Denis is one of France’s most acclaimed and original filmmakers. Since her remarkable debut success with ‘Chocolat’ (1986), she has produced an impressive series of features which have been in …

Though long ignored or dismissed by film critics and scholars, Marcel Pagnol (1895–1974) was among the most influential auteurs of his era. This comprehensive overview of Pagnol’s career, now availab …

Since the early 1950s, Chris Marker has embraced different filmmaking styles as readily as he has new technologies, and has broadened conceptions of the documentary in distinctly personal ways. He ha …

Fragile yet powerful, macho yet transgressive, Jacques Audiard’s films portray disabled, marginalised or otherwise non-normative bodies in constant states of crisis and transformation. Jacques Audiar …

Described by Giles Deleuze as ‘one of the greatest modern auteurs’, Philippe Garrel is widely acknowledged as the most significant filmmaker to emerge in France after the New Wave. His deeply persona …

This is the first book to study the middlebrow novel in France. Middlebrow is a derogatory word that connotes blandness, mediocrity and a failed aspiration to ‘high’ culture. However, when appropriat …

On one level, this book provides a concise and comprehensive account of Robert Guediguian’s numerous films, combining meticulous stylistic analyses with historical, political, and generic context. Bu …

This is the first English-language book on controversial female director Catherine Breillat, whose films include Romance, A ma soeur! (Fat Girl), Anatomy of Hell and most recently, The Last Mistress. …

Saccharine for some, poignant for others, Jacques Demy’s ‘enchanted’ world is familiar to generations of French audiences accustomed to watching Christmas repeats of his fairytale Peau d’ane (1970) o …

If cinema can be approached as poetry and philosophy, it is because of Jean Epstein. Cocteau, Bunuel (who was his assistant), Hitchcock, Pasolini and Godard, and theoreticians Kracauer, Deleuze and R …

Laurent Cantet is of one France’s leading contemporary directors. In a series of important films, including Human Resources, Time Out, Heading South, The Class and Foxfire, he takes stock of the mode …

Despite his controversial reputation and international notoriety as a film-maker, no full-length study of Clouzot has ever been published in English. This book offers a significant revaluation of Clo …

This is the first full-length monograph in English about one of France’s most important contemporary filmmakers, perhaps best known in the English speaking world for his award winning Les Roseaux sau …

One of the most gifted directors of the post New Wave, Maurice Pialat is frequently compared to such legendary filmmakers as Jean Renoir and Robert Bresson. A quintessentially realist filmmaker, who, …

A wide range of French women writers are surveyed, including Sand, Colette, Beauvoir and Duras among the ‘canonized’, and many marginalized or forgotten and contemporary names not yet widely known ou …