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Contemporary French Film: Issues and Debates

Module description

Contemporary French Cinema: Issues and Debates starts from the premise that contemporary French cinema is one of the most diverse, exciting, and challenging cinemas in the world. It concentrates on a small corpus of films that crystallise the major issues impacting on the contemporary French ecosystem, examining the enduring role of the auteur; the question of popular cinema; the importance of setting; representations of heritage and history; and themes of dispossession and exclusion. No prior experience of film study is needed, but you will need to read and understand French. 

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to give you an informed appreciation of the rich and complex nature of Contemporary French Cinema. As well as studying individual films in depth, we will investigate links between various films, and between films and their social and cultural contexts. The module will introduce you to films that vary in tone, genre, and popular appeal, addressing questions of authorship, setting, technology, and the politics of aesthetics. The module aims to give you the opportunity and research skills required to trace aesthetic, cultural and critical connections between the films produced within a strong, defiant national cinema culture. Lectures and forum tasks will model research and interpretation that brings together stylistic, political, and socio-cultural analysis. You will be trained to perform close readings of sequences in films. Online discussion and forums and/or seminars will give you the opportunity to develop your own approaches to the syllabus texts and other materials.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate a sound general understanding of the chosen texts, including reference to their place in the historical / cinematic / cultural context of their time

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 2. With some guidance from the course tutor, evaluate and apply a range of critical approaches to the material covered
• 3. Mount a detailed argument in the appropriate register of English, mustering a range of textual or other evidence in its support
• 4. Access and use critically printed and, where appropriate, electronic learning resources identified as useful by the course tutor, and, to a limited extent, discover other useful materials independently
• 5. Analyse selected TL texts, relating them to significant elements in their cultural / historical / generic context
• 6. Following broad guidelines, locate and identify library and electronic resources on a given topic
• 7. Use recommended reference works to compile a bibliography on a specified topic

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 8. Undertake defined learning activities with a measure of autonomy, asking for guidance where necessary
• 9. Adopt a critical approach to the selection and organisation of material in order to produce, to a deadline, a written or oral argument
• 10. Present information and arguments on a defined topic to a group of listeners
• 11. Present a cogent and sustained argument orally and in writing, in English, on a topic chosen from a range of options provided, following broad guidelines but selecting and adapting them as required
• 12. Using course material provided, research, plan and write an essay on a chosen aspect of the subject, to a specified length and deadline
• 13. Demonstrate general competence in word-processing and in use of the Internet

Syllabus plan

The course is divided into topics which introduces students to issues of authorship, markets, and representation in French film culture. The topics are taught through a combination of lectures, online asynchronous discussion, and seminars either held face-to-face or online.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Reading provided via a digitised reading list.

Indicative Viewing:

• Caché (Haneke, 2005)
• Le fabuleux destin d’Amlie Poulain (Jeunet, 2001)
• 5 x 2 (Ozon, 2004)
• Bienvenue chez les Chtis (Boon, 2009)
• Tout est pardonné (Hansen-Love, 2007)
• Entre les murs (Cantet, 2008)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=2633