Critical mass : social documentary in France from the silent era to the new wave

Thirty-five years of nonfiction films offer a unique lens on twentieth-century French social issues Critical Mass is the first sustained study to trace the origins of social documentary filmmaking in France back to the late 1920s. Steven Ungar argues that socially engaged nonfiction cinema produced in France between 1945 and 1963 can be seen as a delayed response to what filmmaker Jean Vigo referred to in 1930 as a social cinema whose documented point of view would open the eyes of spectators to provocative subjects of the moment. Ungar identifies Vigo’s manifesto, his 1930 short À propos de Nice , and late silent-era films by Georges Lacombe, Boris Kaufman, André Sauvage, and Marcel Carné as antecedents of postwar documentaries by Eli Lotar, René Vautier, Alain Resnais, Chris Marker, and Jean Rouch, associated with critiques of colonialism and modernization in Fourth and early Fifth Republic France. Close readings of individual films alternate with transitions to address transnational practices as well as state- and industry-wide reforms between 1935 and 1960. Critical Mass is an indispensable complement to studies of nonfiction film in France, from Georges Lacombe’s La Zone (1928) to Chris Marker’s Le Joli Mai (1963). MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Introduction: Primal Scenes and Establishing Shots 8 1 A First Wave: Documentary Paris in the Shadow of the Talkies 24 Somewhere Else: Georges Lacombe and La Zone (1928) 24 The Ambiguities of Pure Cinema 37 Paris by Night: Les Halles centrales (Boris Kaufman, 1928) 43 2 Visualizing Paris Anew 48 Moving In, Moving Out: André Sauvage and Études sur Paris (1928) 48 In Thrall to the Silent Image 69 Sunday in the Country: Marcel Carné and Nogent, Eldorado du dimanche (1929) 84 Through the Window 91 Transition I: Networking, 1929–1930 98 3 “All the World’s Misery” 104 The End of the World 104 A Kick in the Pants to Open Our Eyes: À propos de Nice (Jean Vigo, 1930) 108 Sweet Children of Misery: Aubervilliers (Eli Lotar, 1946) 126 The Slaughterhouse Photos 135 Transition II: Popular Front—Vichy—Postwar 148 4 Colonial Cinema and Its Discontents 158 Making Waves: Afrique 50 (René Vautier, 1950) 159 “We Martians of Africa”: Les Statues meurent aussi (Alain Resnais and Chris Marker, 1953) 169 Whose Voice? Whose Film? Moi, un Noir (Jean Rouch, 1958) 179 Transition III: The Group of Thirty 194 5 Two Takes on Postwar Paris 204 Scenes in a Library: Toute la mémoire du monde (Alain Resnais, 1956) 204 Other Scenes in a Library 220 Paris Springtime Zero: Le Joli Mai (Chris Marker, 1963) 224 A Hard Left 246 Afterthoughts: A Radical Lyricism 252 Acknowledgments 258 Appendix A. Declaration of the Group of Thirty 260 Appendix B. Quality Subsidy Study: Short-Subject Advantages 264 Notes 266 Filmography 300 Index 310 A 310 B 311 C 312 D 313 E 314 F 314 G 315 H 315 I 316 J 316 K 316 L 317 M 317 N 318 O 318 P 319 Q 319 R 320 S 320 T 322 U 322 V 322 W 323 Z 323 **Thirty-five years of nonfiction films offer a unique lens on twentieth-century French social issues**__Critical Mass__Ungar identifies Vigo’s manifesto, his 1930 short , and late silent-era films by Georges Lacombe, Boris Kaufman, André Sauvage, and Marcel Carné as antecedents of postwar documentaries by Eli Lotar, René Vautier, Alain Resnais, Chris Marker, and Jean Rouch, associated with critiques of colonialism and modernization in Fourth and early Fifth Republic France. Close readings of individual films alternate with transitions to address transnational practices as well as state- and industry-wide reforms between 1935 and 1960. is an indispensable complement to studies of nonfiction film in France, from Georges Lacombe’s (1928) to Chris Marker’s (1963). The first sustained study to trace the origins of social documentary filmmaking in late 1920s France, Critical Mass provides close readings of individual films and addresses transnational practices as well as state- and industry-wide reforms between 1935 and 1960. It is an indispensable complement to studies of French nonfiction film, from Georges Lacombe's La Zone to Chris Marker's Le Joli Mai