French Blockbusters S French Blockbusters
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Traditions in World Cinema General Editors: Linda Badley and R. Barton Palmer Founding Editor: Steven Jay Schneider This series introduces diverse and fascinating movements in world cinema. Each volume concentrates CHARLIE MICHAEL on a set of films from a different national, regional or, in some cases, cross-cultural cinema which constitute a particular tradition. FRENCH BLOCKBUSTERS Cultural Politics of a Transnational Cinema CHARLIE MICHAEL FRENCH BLOCKBUSTERS FRENCH BLOCKBUSTERS The digitised spectacles conjured by a word like ‘blockbuster’ may create a certain cognitive Cultural Politics of a Transnational Cinema 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 CHARLIE MICHAEL 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 across a swath of 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 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. Cover image: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Luc Besson, 2017 © STX Entertainment/Photofest Cover design: Stuart Dalziel Edinburgh FRENCH BLOCKBUSTERS Traditions in World Cinema General Editors International Noir Linda Badley (Middle Tennessee State Homer B. Pettey and R. Barton Palmer University) (eds) R. Barton Palmer (Clemson University) Films on Ice Scott MacKenzie and Anna Westerståhl Founding Editor Stenport (eds) Steven Jay Schneider (New York University) Nordic Genre Film Tommy Gustafsson and Pietari Kääpä Titles in the series include: (eds) Contemporary Japanese Cinema Since Traditions in World Cinema Hana-Bi Linda Badley, R. Barton Palmer and Adam Bingham Steven Jay Schneider (eds) Chinese Martial Arts Cinema (2nd edition) Japanese Horror Cinema Stephen Teo Jay McRoy (ed.) Slow Cinema New Punk Cinema Tiago de Luca and Nuno Barradas Jorge Nicholas Rombes (ed.) Expressionism in Cinema African Filmmaking Olaf Brill and Gary D. Rhodes (eds) Roy Armes French Language Road Cinema Palestinian Cinema Michael Gott Nurith Gertz and George Khleifi Transnational Film Remakes Czech and Slovak Cinema Iain Robert Smith and Constantine Peter Hames Verevis The New Neapolitan Cinema Coming-of-age Cinema in New Zealand Alex Marlow-Mann Alistair Fox American Smart Cinema New Transnationalisms in Contemporary Claire Perkins Latin American Cinemas The International Film Musical Dolores Tierney Corey Creekmur and Linda Mokdad (eds) Celluloid Cinema Italian Neorealist Cinema Edna Lim Torunn Haaland Short Films from a Small Nation Magic Realist Cinema in East Central C. Claire Thomson Europe B-Movie Gothic Aga Skrodzka Justin D. Edwards and Johan Höglund Italian Post-Neorealist Cinema (eds) Luca Barattoni Francophone Belgian Cinema Spanish Horror Film Jamie Steele Antonio Lázaro-Reboll The New Romanian Cinema Post-beur Cinema Christina Stojanova (ed.) with the Will Higbee participation of Dana Duma New Taiwanese Cinema in Focus French Blockbusters Flannery Wilson Charlie Michael edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/tiwc FRENCH BLOCKBUSTERS Cultural Politics of a Transnational Cinema Charlie Michael Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com © Charlie Michael, 2019 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road 12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry Edinburgh EH8 8PJ Typeset in 10/12.5 pt Sabon by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire and printed and bound in Great Britain A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 4744 2423 3 (hardback) ISBN 978 1 4744 2424 0 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 1 4744 2425 7 (epub) The right of Charlie Michael to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders of the illustrative material in this book, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publisher will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity. CONTENTS List of Figures vi Acknowledgements viii Traditions in World Cinema xii Foreword by Frédéric Gimello-Mesplomb xiv Introduction: French Blockbusters? 1 1. The Lang Plan and its Aftermath 29 2. Popular French Cinema and ‘Cultural Diversity’ 59 3. The Debatable Destiny of Amélie Poulain 91 4. Valerian and the Planet of a Thousand Critics 114 5. Countercurrents in French Action Cinema 142 6. Serial (Bad?) French Comedies 178 Conclusion: A Disputed Heritage 213 Index 226 FRENCH BLOCKBUSTERS FIGURES 3.1 From Amélie / Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain 97 3.2 Cover of Cahiers du cinéma, January 2002 108 4.1 Cartoon published in Le Film Français 117 4.2 Cover of Valérian et Laureline, Tome 2: L’Empire des mille planètes 117 4.3 Cartoon originally published in Pilote 113 128 4.4 From Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets 133 5.1 From Taken 152 5.2 From Taken 153 5.3 From Lucy 156 5.4 Cover of Starfix 2 161 5.5 From Largo Winch: The Heir Apparent 165 5.6 From Largo Winch: The Heir Apparent 166 5.7 From Mea Culpa 168 5.8 From Une affaire d’état 169 5.9 From Une affaire d’état 169 5.10 From Une affaire d’état 170 5.11 From A bout portant 171 5.12 From A bout portant 171 5.13 From A bout portant 172 6.1 From Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis / Welcome to the Sticks 181 FIGURES 6.2 Chart published in Quentin Deleau, Quels sont les genres du cinéma français qui s’exportent le mieux? 183 6.3 From Intouchables 193 6.4 From Intouchables 193 6.5 Poster for Qu’est-ce qu’on a fait au bon dieu? 195 6.6 From Qu’est-ce qu’on a fait au bon dieu? 199 6.7 From Qu’est-ce qu’on a fait au bon dieu? 202 FIGURES 3.1 From Amélie / Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain 97 3.2 Cover of Cahiers du cinéma, January 2002 108 4.1 Cartoon published in Le Film Français 117 4.2 Cover of Valérian et Laureline, Tome 2: L’Empire des mille planètes 117 4.3 Cartoon originally published in Pilote 113 128 4.4 From Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets 133 5.1 From Taken 152 5.2 From Taken 153 5.3 From Lucy 156 5.4 Cover of Starfix 2 161 5.5 From Largo Winch: The Heir Apparent 165 5.6 From Largo Winch: The Heir Apparent 166 5.7 From Mea Culpa 168 5.8 From Une affaire d’état 169 5.9 From Une affaire d’état 169 5.10 From Une affaire d’état 170 5.11 From A bout portant 171 5.12 From A bout portant 171 5.13 From A bout portant 172 6.1 From Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis / Welcome to the Sticks 181 vii FRENCH BLOCKBUSTERS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Retracing the origin story of this book is a humbling exercise. Numerous kind souls have helped to sustain French Blockbusters along its meandering path to publication. To all of those people I mention here, and to any others I regret- tably forgot to include, I extend my most heartfelt gratitude. I have been fortunate to have the support of multiple institutions over the years. At UW-Madison, a Vilas Travel Grant and a Dissertation Completion Fellowship played crucial roles in my initial research. A Foreign Languages and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship was a godsend during the early stages of writing. Later, various sources of departmental travel funding from the University of Miami and Emory University helped me to continue my summer research trips to Paris, as did the amazing support I received from the Borchard Foundation for my contribution to ‘French Cinema and the Crises of Globalization’ – a phenomenal conference that took place at the Château de la Bretesche during the summer of 2012. Everyone I have worked with at Edinburgh University Press also deserves mention. Gillian Leslie believed in this project from the moment I pitched it to her at SCMS, then offered glasses of wine and pep talks as it morphed from dissertation to proposal and, eventually, to its current form. My writing also benefited from the thoughtful feedback offered by the two anonymous reviewers and the enthusiastic support of my series editors, Barton Palmer and Linda Badley. As the manuscript entered production last year, Richard Strachan and Eddie Clark provided much-needed guidance, as did Ruth Swanney, my copy editor, and Samantha Clark, who compiled the index.