Gesture in French Post-New Wave Cinema (European Connections)

This book examines the aesthetics of gesture in a selection of French post-New Wave films, revealing how cinema can be used to show the impact of social conditioning on the body, especially in the aftermath of May 1968. These filmmakers developed radical cinematic approaches to represent the body, attitudes and postures. «This fascinating study of gesture makes an original contribution to film studies through the persuasive insights it offers into the significance of gesture in its different manifestations in post-New Wave cinema. Meticulous analysis of an eclectic choice of examples and compelling meditations on wider questions of social conditioning, human memory and gender make this book essential reading.» (Dr Albertine Fox, Senior Lecturer in French Film, University of Bristol) Since the invention of cinema in the late nineteenth century, gesture has been a central preoccupation and source of innovation for early film pioneers and avant-garde filmmakers. A non-verbal form of expression and communication characterised by movement, gesture is a key theoretical concept in film analysis that raises crucial questions about the medium specificity of cinema. This book uses an interdisciplinary and intermedial approach to read gesture in terms of its interplay with film technology and its relations with the visual and performing arts. The author examines the aesthetics of gesture in a selection of films made during a complex historical and cultural period marked by the disintegration of the French New Wave, the uprisings of May 1968 and the decline of postwar economic prosperity. The book offers an in-depth study of the works of major and often under-explored French and Francophone filmmakers, artists, writers and intellectuals, including Chantal Akerman, Fernand Deligny, Jean-Luc Godard, Pierre Klossowski, Anne-Marie Miéville, Georges Perec, Bernard Queysanne, Jacques Rivette, Renaud Victor and Pierre Zucca. While revitalising the expression of gesture in modern sound cinema, their films developed radical ways of representing and revealing the impact of sociocultural conditioning on the body. "Since the invention of cinema in the late nineteenth century, gesture has been a central preoccupation and source of innovations for early film pioneers and avant-garde filmmakers. Gesture is a non-verbal form of expression and communication which enables us to consider, on the one hand, the medium specificity of cinema and, on the other hand, the concept of intermediality, that is, the relations between the moving image and other visual and performing arts. To date, studies on gesture in sound cinema and post-war European modern cinema remains relatively scarce, even though gesture during this period is symptomatic of deep cinematic transformations. Through an interdisciplinary approach, this book examines the aesthetics of gesture in a selection of French post-New Wave films, made on the fringes of film industry, which reveal how cinema can be used as a particularly pertinent instrument to show the impact of sociocultural conditioning on the body, especially in the aftermath of May 1968. Exploring radical manners of filming, performing and editing gestures, post-New Wave filmmakers develop a profusion of cinematic approaches and styles to represent the body as well as the ritualisation of attitudes, postures and gestures"-- Provided by publisher Cover Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 Everyday Gestures, Automatism and the Archive in Georges Perec and Bernard Queysanne’s Un homme qui dort (The Man Who Sleeps, 1974) Chapter 2 Gestural Styles and Acting Styles in Chantal Akerman’s Domestic Territory Chapter 3 Gesture, Image and Intermediality in Jean-Luc Godard’s Prénom Carmen (First Name: Carmen, 1983) Chapter 4 The Mystery of Gesture according to Pierre Klossowski: Tableau Vivant and Film Performance in Pierre Zucca’s Roberte (1979) Chapter 5 Gestural Lines Conclusion Bibliography Index Series Index