Phil Powrie is Professor of French Cultural Studies and Director of the Centre for Research into Film at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

the book is timely indeed ... the most compellling section of the book is the middle one, dedicated to the thriller. Here the author appears to come into full flow and his interpretations are lively and well thought through ... an attractive feature of Powrie's writing is that the chapters often raise more questions than there is space to answer, thus giving the text a polemical edge that should provoke more readers, in a challenging way, to think beyond the arguments provided by Powrie's mostly very readable analyses.

• Preface ; Introduction ; The Nostalgia Film ; Un amour de Swann: nostalgia and sexuality ; Un dimanche a la campagne: nostalgia, painting, and depressive masochism ; Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources: nostalgia and hysteria ; Coup de foudre: nostalgia and lesbianism ; Vivement dimanche! or how to take away with one hand what you give with the other ; A Fistful of Polars: chronicles of discomfiture ; Diva's Deluxe Disasters ; Subway: identity and inarticulacy ; Mauvais sang: the flight of the female ; The comic film ; Trois hommes et un couffin: hysterical homoeroticism ; La Vie est un long fleuve tranquille: fallen angels and men overboard ; Tenue de soiree: the 'suffering macho' ; Conclusion ; Filmography ; Bibliography ; Index

Phil Powrie is Professor of French Cultural Studies and Director of the Centre for Research into Film at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

the book is timely indeed ... the most compellling section of the book is the middle one, dedicated to the thriller. Here the author appears to come into full flow and his interpretations are lively and well thought through ... an attractive feature of Powrie's writing is that the chapters often raise more questions than there is space to answer, thus giving the text a polemical edge that should provoke more readers, in a challenging way, to think beyond the arguments provided by Powrie's mostly very readable analyses.

• Preface ; Introduction ; The Nostalgia Film ; Un amour de Swann: nostalgia and sexuality ; Un dimanche a la campagne: nostalgia, painting, and depressive masochism ; Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources: nostalgia and hysteria ; Coup de foudre: nostalgia and lesbianism ; Vivement dimanche! or how to take away with one hand what you give with the other ; A Fistful of Polars: chronicles of discomfiture ; Diva's Deluxe Disasters ; Subway: identity and inarticulacy ; Mauvais sang: the flight of the female ; The comic film ; Trois hommes et un couffin: hysterical homoeroticism ; La Vie est un long fleuve tranquille: fallen angels and men overboard ; Tenue de soiree: the 'suffering macho' ; Conclusion ; Filmography ; Bibliography ; Index