French Road Movie

Neil Archer teaches Film Studies at Anglia Ruskin University. He is the author of a study guide to The Bourne Ultimatum (Auteur, 2012) and is currently undertaking long-term research into the relationship between European and American cinemas, with a particular interest in the recent films of Woody Allen.

“Much of the discussion…in this interesting book, has useful things to say at a micro level about the contingency of the image in the digital era and the soundness of an approach that tests the limits, pitfalls and benefits of speaking of ‘Frenchness’ in relation to the audiovisual projection of a space that never quite seems to stand still.”  ·  Journal of Contemporary European Studies"This is a well conceived and interesting book. The arguments combine cultural width and analytical detail, and are coherent and persuasive. There is a solid theoretical basis which is clearly explained but never intrusive."  ·  Wendy Everett, University of Bath"There is much of interest in this book and it provides some very interesting and at times innovative readings of an important body of films and of a French inflection of the road movie genre. For this it is to be commended and I certainly think a work on this topic is timely and much needed."  ·  Lucy Mazdon, University of Southampton

• AcknowledgementsNote on translationsIntroduction: Locating the Road MovieChapter 1. Road to Autopia: Les Valseuses and Le Plein de superChapter 2. ‘Capturing Freedom’: Marginality and the Road MovieChapter 3. No Place Like Home: Camping it Up in Drôle de FélixChapter 4. Nowhere Men: Masculinity and the Road MovieChapter 5. From Flânerie to Glânerie : The Possibilities of a ‘Feminine Road Movie’Chapter 6. Travel and the Transnational Road Movie in the Twenty-First CenturyAfterword: ‘Welcome to France!’: The Road Movie and French National CinemaFilmographyBibliography