Contemporary Maghrebi-French Cinema and Its Audiences
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Postcolonial Popcorn: Contemporary Maghrebi-French Cinema and its Audiences by Alexander Hastie A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography The University of Sheffield December 2017 Abstract This thesis is a study of popular contemporary postcolonial cinema, through readings of three recent Maghrebi-French films. The research is comprised of the films Days of Glory (2006), Outside the Law (2010) and Free Men (2011), which narrate unfamiliar colonial stories in familiar ways. The films are a significant part of a cultural and commercial ‘shift’ toward more mainstream filmmaking in France, and therefore provide a fascinating and complex point of entry into the study of popular postcolonial cinema. By incorporating the popular into the postcolonial, the primary contribution of this thesis is that it extends the scope of postcolonial cultural criticism, in order to highlight how such an engagement functions to interrupt hegemonic imaginaries of colonial space, memory and gender. Informed by a postcolonial critique, this thesis deploys textual analysis in order to investigate how the films are textually constituted across and through different cultural frameworks, questioning what this means for conceptualising postcolonialism. Primarily investigating the ways in which the films rewrite colonial histories using the genre conventions of Hollywood, this thesis attends to issues pertinent to postcolonial France. The thesis therefore identifies some of the key relationships to space that are narrated throughout the films, in which geographies of belonging and exclusion for Maghrebi- French people are articulated through popular aesthetics. An important part of articulating place is memory, and so this thesis also examines how occluded memories are mobilised and energised at the intersection with more familiar historical imaginaries, showing how this multidirectional relationship works to situate colonial histories in ways that are disruptive of World War Two imaginaries. This thesis also makes contributions to understandings of masculinity, by offering readings of Maghrebi-French male characters through which emerge popular postcolonial masculinities that draw upon masculinist Hollywood types, to produce new hybrid types of anti-colonial gangster, infantilised colonial soldier and Muslim spy. This thesis also examines how contemporary English-speaking Western audiences engage with the films in online reception spaces, and thus what is at stake in making postcolonial film more accessible. Using discourse analysis, this thesis attends to the different ways audiences respond to, reproduce and transform the meanings of the films in particular social and political settings. In doing so, it will be seen that the films are important sites of consumption and identity contestation, particularly around issues of geopolitics, masculinity, and whiteness, and a point of encounter through which the power relations in watching and consuming foreign-language films in ‘the West’ will be scrutinised. Therefore, in the course of this study, contemporary Maghrebi-French filmmaking is framed in terms of its appeal to popular audiences, and it will be seen that it is beginning to carve out new space for itself in world cinema, with audiences playing an important role in what that space will look like in the future. Acknowledgements There are a number of people without whom this doctoral research project would have been impossible. I would first of all like to express gratitude to my supervisors, Professor Richard Phillips and Dr Eric Olund, whose guidance throughout the process has been priceless. Their willingness to listen, and ability to prompt me with often tough, but stimulating, questions has motivated me to keep going, and has fostered my intellectual curiosity along the way. I also owe the inspiration for the title of this thesis, Postcolonial Popcorn, to the creative mind of Richard Phillips, and his love for Radio 4. I will always be grateful also for the financial backing and vote of confidence from the ESRC, who funded this thesis. My eternal gratitude will always go to Dr Lisa Lau, who introduced me to postcolonial theory as an undergraduate student, and has been a source of unwavering good counsel and friendship ever since. Her confidence in, and certainty of, my abilities inspired me to undertake a PhD, and has encouraged me to excel as a researcher. I hope to have made you proud. I will also be forever thankful for the intellectual, and emotional, support of my fellow doctoral students. To Dr Phil Jones for providing me with good coffee; to Dr Azeezat Johnson for keeping me on my toes; to Lara Fayombo for sharing and for listening; to Martha Avalos-Pelaez for taking the final steps with me; to Amber Wilson for smiling, for her enthusiasm and for always having my back; and a special thanks to Rebecca Murray, for cheering me on, for the solidarity, for being generous with her time, and for being a good friend. I can never thank my family enough, nor ever repay them, for the sacrifices made, and for being unwavering in their love and support for me. Without the advice, wisdom, concern, and strength of my parents throughout the course of my doctoral studies, and my life, I would not be where I am today. To my partner Aimée, this PhD would not have been possible without you. Thank you for coming on this adventure with me, for listening, for contributing, for enduring, for lifting me, for going slightly mad with me, and for still loving me through all of it. Table of Contents ABSTRACT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION pg.1-11 1.1 Introduction: From Beur to Blockbuster.......................................................................1 1.1.1 Research Aim and Questions.........................................................................2 1.1.2 Rachid Bouchareb: Days of Glory (2006) and Outside the Law (2010)........3 1.1.3 Ismaël Ferroukhi: Free Men (2011)...............................................................4 1.1.4 English-Speaking Western Audiences...........................................................5 1.2 Toward a Popular Conception of Postcolonial Cinema................................................5 1.3 Thesis Structure.............................................................................................................9 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW pg.12-35 2.1 Introduction.................................................................................................................12 2.2 Postcolonial France and Beur Cinema........................................................................13 2.3 Postcolonial Studies and Cinema................................................................................20 2.4 Postcolonial Audiences...............................................................................................27 2.5 Film Geographies........................................................................................................31 2.6 Conclusion..................................................................................................................33 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY pg.36-55 3.1 Introduction.................................................................................................................36 3.2 Films: Objects of Study, Approach and Analysis.......................................................36 3.2.1 Objects of Study...........................................................................................37 3.2.2 Approach......................................................................................................40 3.2.3 Methods........................................................................................................41 3.3 Audience Reception: Objects of Study, Approach and Analysis................................43 3.3.1 Objects of Study...........................................................................................44 3.3.2 Sampling......................................................................................................45 3.3.3 Approach......................................................................................................52 3.3.4 Methods........................................................................................................52 3.4 Positionality................................................................................................................54 3.5 Conclusion..................................................................................................................55 CHAPTER FOUR: (UN)FAMILIAR SPACES: NARRATING GEOGRAPHIES OF BELONGING AND EXCLUSION pg.57-97 4.1 Introduction.................................................................................................................57 4.2 Soil..............................................................................................................................58 4.2.1 Establishing Topographies in Days of Glory (2006)...................................59 4.2.2 The Algerian Bled in Exile..........................................................................62 4.2.3 (In)Fertile Soils of the Motherland..............................................................66 4.3 Dirt..............................................................................................................................70 4.4 Incarceration...............................................................................................................76