Battle of the Sexes in French Cinema, 1930–1956

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.

"The Battle of the Sexes in French Cinema, 1930–1956 makes an incontrovertible case for a social history of French cinema, bringing to light a whole world of films, and a period in French film history, overlooked by formalist critics. NoËl Burch and GeneviÈve Sellier’s analyses of character, gender, and ideology are trenchant, and there is an analytic surprise on every page of this fascinating book. Required reading!"-Alice Kaplan, author of Dreaming in French "This flawless translation of La DrÔle de guerre des sexes is a boon to cinema studies. NoËl Burch and GeneviÈve Sellier rightly argue that attention to the New Wave and auteur theory obfuscated much of the great film made in France during the years prior to the war, during the Occupation, and after the Liberation. Their book will rejuvenate historical and ideological study of classical French cinema in the Anglophone world. Anyone interested in French film history and theory will find it invaluable."-Tom Conley, author of An Errant Eye: Poetry and Topography in Early Modern France "[An] important and thorough work of film history and criticism. . . . Graham's expert translation brings to English readers an invaluable examination of a period of French history as represented in its cinema and analyses of particular films. . . . [T]he authors perform an important service to film history by revisiting and reframing well-known films and by unearthing many largely forgotten films. Essential. All readers."  - L. M. Anderst (Choice) "A classic in the field and we can congratulate the press on this new translation, not so as to freeze its original ideas into a new orthodoxy but rather to serve as a spur for continued reflection." - Hugo Frey (American Historical Review) "Burch and Sellier’s seminal study not only broke the pattern when it first came out in the original French  but also provided a timely and insightful account of attitudes to gender and shifting sexual identities during three of the most eventful periods in twentieth-century French history … The originality and lasting appeal of [their] approach thus derives from the choice of an under-studied section of French cinema history as much as from the in-depth analysis of the relationship between film and society across a vast array of mainstream, high-quality productions alongside unsuccessful or marginal productions." - Romona Fotiade (French History) "[T]his translation of Burch and Sellier’s study will prove immensely valuable for non-French-speaking researchers..." - Claire Boyle (French Studies)

• Introduction 1Part I. The Prewar Period, 1930–1939 131. Panorama of a Cine-Family Romance 15Film Analyses 54Part II. The German Occupation, 1940–1944: Fathers Take a Backseat 892. Castrated Fathers 913. Women in the Service of the Patriarchy 1034. Misogyny Lingers On 1145. Absent Men, Fleeing Men 1256. Women Take Control of Their Destiny 1337. The Zazou Film: A Dissident Style during the Occupation 1408. A Woman Faced with Her Desire 1509. Gentle Male Figures and New Fathers 164Film Analyses 180Part III. The Postwar Period, 1945–1956: Settling of Scores 23510. The Destabilizing Effects of the Liberation 23711. Restoring the Patriarchal Order 269Film Analyses 305Conclusion 341References 347Index 357