{"title":"The rough and the smooth: narrative, character and performance in Fingers (1978) and De battre mon cœur s’est arrêté /The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005)","authors":"Douglas Morrey","doi":"10.1080/14715880.2016.1220196","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14715880.2016.1220196","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract As is well known, Jacques Audiard’s De battre mon cœur s’est arrêté (2005) is a remake of Fingers (1978), directed by James Toback. Bucking the usual trend of remakes, De battre is popularly regarded as a more successful film than Fingers. The French film helped propel the careers of Audiard and stars Romain Duris and Niels Arestrup, whereas the careers of Toback and Harvey Keitel stalled in the wake of Fingers. The French remake is also seen as more aesthetically successful in its narrative structure and characterisation. Where Fingers – in some ways typical of the New Hollywood cinema – revolves around the hysterically improbable masculine crisis of Jimmy Angeleli, incarnated in Keitel’s hyperactive performance, Duris’s more nuanced acting creates a more plausible and likeable character in Thomas Seyr. Ironically, the usual complaint about film remakes – that the ‘copy’ tends to smooth out the rough edges of the ‘original’, resolving ambiguities in a neat narrative arc – is arguably as true as ever in this pair of films where the standard national identifications are reversed (the French film is a polished remake of the problematic American model). This article compares the two films through a close reading of the performance styles of Keitel and Duris and an analysis of the protagonists’ respective character trajectories. In the process, it asks questions about Audiard’s debt to American cinema and about his work with actors.","PeriodicalId":51945,"journal":{"name":"Studies in French Cinema","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14715880.2016.1220196","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60252623","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bibliography for Jacques Audiard","authors":"J. Dobson, P. Powrie","doi":"10.1080/14715880.2016.1238169","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14715880.2016.1238169","url":null,"abstract":"General Dobson, Julia. 2008. “Jacques Audiard: Contesting Filiations.” In Kate Ince (ed) Five Directors: Auteurism from Assayas to Ozon, edited by Kate Ince, 38–58. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Dobson, Julia. 2010. “Asserting Text, Context and Intertext: Jill Forbes and French Film Studies.” In Studies in French Cinema: UK Perspectives, 1985–2010, edited by Will Higbee and Sarah Leahy, 117–126. Bristol: Intellect Rouyer, Philippe and Yann Tobin. 2012. “Entretien avec Jacques Audiard: qu’est-ce que le discours amoureux aujourd’hui.” Positif 616: 9–14. Rouyer, Philippe and Claude Vassé. 2005. “Entretien avec Jacques Audiard: et si tuer quelqu’un au cinéma, c’était difficile?” Positif 529: 21–25. Tirard, Laurent and Thomas Baurez. 2006. “Jacques Audiard.” Leçons de cinéma 2. Paris: Nouveau monde éditions.","PeriodicalId":51945,"journal":{"name":"Studies in French Cinema","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14715880.2016.1238169","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60252965","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Special affects: reconfiguring melodrama in De rouille et d’os (Rust and Bone, Audiard, 2012)","authors":"J. Dobson","doi":"10.1080/14715880.2016.1231450","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14715880.2016.1231450","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Jacques Audiard’s De rouille et d’os/Rust and Bone provides a further example of this filmmaker’s sustained attention to the powerful narrative, filmic and affective impacts of genre hybridisation – in this case the knowing mix of realist and melodramatic modes. This article sets Audiard’s film in the broader critical context of shifting approaches to melodrama and argues that Rust and Bone represents an important re-purposing of the melodramatic mode that reconfigures the trope of embodied suffering associated with melodrama, to resituate the body as a site of affective communication, social agency and resistance. The article concludes by suggesting that, whilst critical and popular reception of the film has focused on its use of the special effects used to support Marion Cotillard’s performance as a double amputee, the film’s re-purposing of melodrama can be seen to create a special affect that is no less striking.","PeriodicalId":51945,"journal":{"name":"Studies in French Cinema","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14715880.2016.1231450","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60252734","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"De battre mon cœur s’est arrêté (Audiard, 2005) : la masculinité comme souffrance","authors":"Geneviéve Sellier","doi":"10.1080/14715880.2016.1240993","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14715880.2016.1240993","url":null,"abstract":"Résumé De battre mon cœur s’est arrêté (Audiard, 2005) a reçu un accueil critique contrasté, qui a posé la question de la misogynie du réalisateur Jacques Audiard. Cet article propose d’analyser les représentations des identités et des rapports de sexe que construit le film, dans le contexte français d’un cinéma d’auteur revisité par le film noir.","PeriodicalId":51945,"journal":{"name":"Studies in French Cinema","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14715880.2016.1240993","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60253315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exploitants et distributeurs de films en salles en France à l’ère numérique : évolution des métiers et des rapports de force","authors":"C. Forest","doi":"10.1080/14715880.2016.1164417","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14715880.2016.1164417","url":null,"abstract":"Résumé Modifiant profondément de nombreux métiers au sein de l’industrie du film en France, faisant apparaitre de nouveaux acteurs en tant qu’intermédiaires techniques et financiers, la numérisation de la diffusion du film en salle a été accompagnée réglementairement et financièrement par les pouvoirs publics. Ils n’avaient toutefois pas anticipé la rapidité du basculement de la pellicule aux pixels, ni la mise sous dépendance de la filière française à des normes et des technologies essentiellement étatsuniennes, pas plus que l’évolution du rapport de force entre les professions de la diffusion cinématographique. Le bouleversement radical de nombreux métiers n’a pas fini de produire la totalité de ses effets, et cette nouvelle manière de diffuser collectivement des images a modifié la définition même du septième art. Toutes les potentialités du cinéma numérique n’ont pas encore été explorées mais l’accélération structurelle du renouvellement lié aux outils informatiques pose de nombreuses interrogations sur cette dépendance de l’exploitation cinématographique à ses fournisseurs, qui tranche singulièrement avec l’absence d’impact sur la demande des spectateurs et leur fréquentation en salles.","PeriodicalId":51945,"journal":{"name":"Studies in French Cinema","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14715880.2016.1164417","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60252482","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Entretien avec Agnès de Sacy, scénariste : le financement de l’écriture des films et la rémunération des auteurs","authors":"Isabelle Vanderschelden","doi":"10.1080/14715880.2016.1164420","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14715880.2016.1164420","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This interview with established French screenwriter Agnès de Sacy provides complementary information on the different roles played by the screenwriter in the writing and production stages of a film. It also assesses the professional status of the screenwriter in France in the context of their income, advances and royalties payment. It also discusses the nature of the professional contracts negotiated by screenwriters.","PeriodicalId":51945,"journal":{"name":"Studies in French Cinema","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14715880.2016.1164420","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60252383","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Money for writing: screenplay development and screenwriters’ earnings in French cinema","authors":"Isabelle Vanderschelden","doi":"10.1080/14715880.2016.1164418","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14715880.2016.1164418","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The funds allocated to developing screenplays currently constitute on average 2 to 3% of the overall budget of a film in France. Producers are more than ever dependent on presenting attractive draft screenplays to find their financial partners. As a result, screenwriters undoubtedly are active economic partners of production planning, but they do not seem to receive much professional recognition for this vital role. Moreover, their earnings often fail to reflect the amount of work produced and do not reward adequately the risks taken, including the possibility that production could stop after the screenplay is written. This article investigates the place of screenplay development within the economics of French cinema. Using recently published official reports and interviews, the author identifies different types of screenwriters – freestanding screenwriters, writing teams and screenwriters co-writing with the director – and addresses their working conditions. She surveys some of the contract modalities for the remuneration of professional screenwriters. Finally, she reviews the proposals made by different professional bodies to improve the remuneration of screenwriters and reform the financing of screenwriting.","PeriodicalId":51945,"journal":{"name":"Studies in French Cinema","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14715880.2016.1164418","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60252136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Adaptability: literature and cinema redux","authors":"Jean-Louis Jeannelle","doi":"10.1080/14715880.2016.1164422","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14715880.2016.1164422","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article opposes the notions of adaptation and adaptability, the latter understood here as a complex commercial, screenwriting and critical process. Following the sociological methods endorsed by Simone Murray in The Adaptation Industry, the author studies the concrete aspects of this process of evaluation, development and use of the adaptability of literary works through an examination of the case of a French company: Best Seller to Box Office, a company created to identify the ‘adaptability quotient’ of contemporary fiction and non-fiction works. The composition of adaptation spec sheets, with the purpose of measuring and highlighting adaptability potential, makes up one of the essential elements of this business, which is relatively new to France. This article examines the particular nature of the business, especially the interface between different facets of the adaptation process.","PeriodicalId":51945,"journal":{"name":"Studies in French Cinema","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14715880.2016.1164422","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60252485","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The French film industry: funding, policies, debates","authors":"Isabelle Vanderschelden","doi":"10.1080/14715880.2016.1164421","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14715880.2016.1164421","url":null,"abstract":"Money seems to be at the centre of recent debates around French cinema, and the production mechanisms of the feature film industry are under constant scrutiny. Yet, little research is available in ...","PeriodicalId":51945,"journal":{"name":"Studies in French Cinema","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14715880.2016.1164421","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60252814","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘Maravalgate’ and its effects: a year of debate over the funding of French cinema","authors":"Jacqueline Nacache","doi":"10.1080/14715880.2016.1164419","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14715880.2016.1164419","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The French system of film funding allows French cinema to resist the hegemony of Hollywood better than any other European cinema. It is a reflection of France’s protective stance regarding its cultural products, a position that has long been expressed in its strong defence of the principle of ‘cultural exception’ in free trade agreements between the European Union and the United States. It might be thought that an arrangement that is so favourable to film production would receive unanimous support. On the contrary, it fuels controversy and is regularly criticised and even attacked. An example of this is producer Vincent Maraval’s claim at the end of 2012 that French actors are ‘overpaid’. This opinion piece had considerable repercussions because it called the funding system of French cinema into question. Its effects are still being felt today. This article will follow the thread of the discussion throughout 2013, a year that is a perfect case study because it presents an exceptional sequence of incidents and reactions around the question of film funding. Through their denunciation of the excesses linked to government assistance, criticism of the avance sur recettes (advance against earnings), rejection of the collective agreement, the fantasy of a cinema of ‘public servants’, and finger-pointing at films with low audiences, these reactions blurred the lines between supporters and opponents of the system. The author analyses the tensions and misunderstandings expressed in these debates, highlighting their often contradictory nature. She points out that these tensions have their origins in debates that significantly predate the very existence of cinema, because they follow in the footsteps of a traditional conflict in France between art and money. She above all stresses the fact that they have inherited a very old suspicion of any art form considered to be dependent on government support.","PeriodicalId":51945,"journal":{"name":"Studies in French Cinema","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14715880.2016.1164419","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60252264","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}