| Past Forward Subjects: Collective memory; Imperialism in motion pictures.; National characteristics French in motion pictures.; Historical films; Motion pictures; In Past Forward: French Cinema and the Post-Colonial Heritage , author Dayna Oscherwitz focuses on the world of French films with a new lens. Drawing upon a wealth of research and the examination of popular French movies, Oscherwitz offers fresh perspectives not only on the unique importance of motion pictures and their indelible influence on French character, but on current debates regarding individual and collective memory. Against this backdrop, Oscherwitz goes on to investigate the multicultural worlds of beur and banlieue movies--cinema seemingly in direct contrast with the heritage film--offering the theory that these films serve as a "countermemory" to an institutionalized one and provide alternative models of collective memory and identity. Through careful analysis of several examples, Oscherwitz demonstrates how these two seemingly different realms--heritage and multicultural cinema--are far from mutually exclusive in the construction of French identity. Throughout the volume, numerous well-known French movies are reexamined, inviting new interpretations of and challenging old views through investigations of familiar cinematic works. Past Forward is arevolutionary volume that boldly reimagines our ideas about French film and its role in communicating history and memory. Dayna Oscherwitz is an assistant professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and literatures at Southern Methodist University. She is a coauthor of The Historical Dictionary of French Cinema and has been published in several journals and collected volumes. |