 | The Battle of the Sexes in French Cinema, 1930–1956 Citing more than 300 films and providing many in-depth interpretations, Burch and Sellier argue that films made in France between 1930 and 1956 created a national imaginary that equated masculinity with French identity. They track the changing representations of masculinity, explaining how the strong patriarch who saved fallen or troubled women from themselves in prewar films gave way to the impotent, unworthy, or incapable father figure of the Occupation. After the Liberation, the patriarch reemerged as protector and provider alongside assertive women who figured as threats not only to themselves but to society as a whole. Noël Burch is Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the University Charles de Gaulle in Lille. His book Theory of Film Practice is widely regarded as one of the key works of Western film criticism. Geneviève Sellier is Professor of Film Studies at the University Michel de Montaigne in Bordeaux. She is the author of several books in French, as well as Masculine Singular: French New Wave Cinema , also published by Duke University Press. |
