FR 341 LE CINEMA FRANCAIS / FRENCH FILM
Prof.
Jean-Jacques Thomas
UB 341 French Film
"Crime and Punishment"
Fall
2016
Final Paper #2
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Select ONE topic (7-8 Pages,
double-spaced, Arial 12, in English) DUE December 16, 2016
- sent as a Microsoft Word file with page
numbers, to
jjtparis7@gmail.com
General
1. With the help of the seven films you have seen in the
second part of the class, how would you define the French "film noir"? Use
specific examples from the films or the presentations that have taken place in
class.
2. Explain with examples taken from the seven last films
presented in class what is at this point the difference you see
between French and American films.
3. In the second part of the course you have seen four
films by 4 of the main figures of the “Nouvelle Vague” (New Wave) French film
school: Chabrol, Truffaut, Malle and Godard. Using the films presented in class
can you describe the main aspects of the New Wave movement and offer a
comparison between your perception of each of four directors.
4. Based on the seven last films that you have seen in
class explain, with specific examples, the consideration of French cinema on the
question of crime and punishment.
Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows)
1. Do you think that the crime of Julien and the crime of Louis have the same value?
2. In order for the audience to be interested in the development of the story, the main character nevertheless has to be fairly attractive. Explain if for you there are any reasons in the story why the criminal character of Julien is worthy of interest and even appreciation from the general audience.
3. The place of Miles Davis music in Ascenseur pour l'échafaud is often considered the most memorable part of this first film by Louis Malle. Do you agree? And, according to you what is the place of music in a film production?
4. After this film Jeanne Moreau will become one of the most iconic French actress of that late 1950 generation with Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve. Explain what made her performance a determining moment of her career. If you want you can also include in your analysis the study of the film La Mariée était en noir by FrançoisTruffaut that we also saw in class.
Plein Soleil (Purple Noon)
5. The murder of the rich heir, Tom Ripley, takes place in a blazing sun at sea, thus the French title makes sense, how do you interpret the meaning of the US title as it can be explained by the story and the general mood of the film?
6. In order for the audience to be interested for so many years in the marginal character of Philip Greenleaf his persona must have a few attractive features. What in your opinion makes Philip Greenleaf or what he represents attractive to the film audience? Do not simply consider that Alain Delon in that role is a fairly attractive actor: in fact he was chosen because the character he plays has many qualities that makes him an interesting persona; so why are we interested in this ungrateful, petty criminal eaten by social, capitalist and love jealousy?
7. Compare the French version of this film with the 1999 version of the same story, The Talented Mr. Ripley, by Anthony Minghella with Matt Damon in the role of Philip Greenleaf. In particular note the difference in the dimension of the social ease of the character.
8. The US author of the original novel, Patricia Highsmith, loved the movie and thought that Alain was extraordinary in his role, but criticized the ending in which it is implied that Greenleaf as Ripley is to be caught by the police; she said, "It was a terrible concession to so-called public morality that the criminal had to be caught." In the novel it is not obvious that the deception is caught by the police. Please comment on the need for the film to "concede to public morality" and what would you think if, at the end of the film, there was no real moral closure as the superchery had not been found?
Le Samourai
9. It is a clicheic aspect of traditional noir gangster movies that the main character has a very high level of self defined morality and a set of well established ethic principles. In the film, Le Samourai, that is constructed as a classic one-dimensional solitary tragedy, Jeff Costello, is presented as a monomaniac killer, with a sparse living environment and a devouring passion for his job and a stiff adequation to the "contract". In a way, his rigid system of values can be seen as the force that will eventually lead him to the only solution, a sort of nobleman "hara-kiri" since he will accept the contract but cannot hurt the one person that save him. What is you perception of the moral dilemma in the film?
10. In Le Samourai, we have the quintessential type of film that is usually associated with French gangster movies of the 60's by Jean-Pierre Melville. The heratic use of an archetypal costume and favorite places or objects (borsalino fedora, trench coat, dark suit, French citroen DS, night club scene, night club girl-friend, etc.) is a familiar environment for the spectator who does not expect to have to adapt to an unfamiliar setting, but simply wants to be absorbed by the intricacy of the plot. There is certain "purity" to this type of cinema but at the same time, afer a while it becomes way too predictable and thus the "genre" noir gangster-with-moral-dilemma came out of fashion, and came back a bit with a parodic twist like in Tarantino's movies of the 80's and çà's.What do you think of this ensemble of films?
11. Please study Le Samourai as a case study of French international professional film making.
12. In Le Samourai, is there a special social collective moral lesson, or is the fate of the main character totally determined by his own moral code? What do you think?
Week-end (Weekend)
13. The New Wave was all in favor of the "cinema d'auteur" [Author's moviemaking]. In the case of Godard's Week-end, what do you think is Godard main, or diverse, messages?
14. Week-end is a transitional film for Godard, between his early "narrative" - linear plot constructed scenarii -- and his next, post 1968, "political" films in which the coherent continuity is replaced by a sort of macro scenario of "cut ups" simply following a vague line of analogous images coming from a diversity of breaking down themes and discourses. Look at Week-end and analyze the beginning of a cinematographic decomposition as the analogous perception by Godard that the "modern" civilization is becoming absurd and is losing its cogency and rational determinism.
15. In that picture of the advanced Western society dominated by speed, mechanization, greed, capitalism, class struggle and oppositions of the extreme, what is the place of the moral judgment that one could pose on the two main characters played by Mireille Darc and Jean Yanne? Do you think that Godard is more interested through the writing of the scenario in placing a moral judgment of the characters or on she modern Western society as a whole? Give specific examples.
16. Describe the "new wave" elements of the cinematic esthetics of this film movement as you see them in Week-end.
La mariée était en noir (The Bride wore Black)
17. Most of you said in class that you like the film. What do you mean by that exactly. Are you cheering the revenge of the main character, Julie Kohler ? She kills five men in cold blood by pure revenge. Do you feel that her fatal quest is morally justified? What if it were a gangster movie ( another gang has killed his wife by accident, for example, and he goes on revenge)? Is it the fact that she is a woman? Explain your interest for this movie and its disturbing story.
18. In the film, except for the monomaniac idea of straight revenge, Julie Kohler seems to ba a quiet and pleasant woman (she plays well with "Cookies"... until she kills her dad ina very horrible fashion!). How do you judge the possible "humanity" of the main character?
19. As explained in class, La mariée était en noir is Truffaut's personally less appreciated movie. It places the blame on the fact that Raoul Coutard "photography" in the film is very elaborated, that the images are thoughtfully constructed; this gives the film a rather "formal" appearance and, in turn, this "artistic approach of the story gives it an esthetic distanciation, that create coldness and an apparent lack of "feelings". Do you agree? Give examples in the film of one interpretation or another.
20. Explore Truffaut's work as an important member of the French "New Wave" film group.
21. Critics say that Truffaut's films are very influenced by Alfred Hitchcock films. By using precise examples, demonstrate this with the films La mariée était en noir.
Les Lyonnais (A Gang Story)
22. While the basic true story of Les Lyonnais is a series of violent gang organized criminal events in the 70's the film film does dwell on the pathological nature of his two main criminal characters, the Gypsy "Momon" Vidal and Serge Suttel. Sense of "honor among thieves", personal loyalty, brotherhood of the outlaws, personal entire devotion, "bromance" are in fact the main ingredients of the plot; even the final drama is not based on any greedy competition; simply betrayed friendship. As a result the final action appears totally gratuitous because it is not in line with the long road that these two characters have travelled outside of the path of the honest French society. Like in the case of the main character in Le Samourai, it is more the absolute dedication to an abstract law "you shall not betray me" that governs the final act. Isn't that in full contradiction with the blind faith that has been the basic rule of their action as a gang? How do you accept this seeming absurdist conclusion?
23. As French society is becoming more multicultural, Les Lyonnais poses clearly (the setting of the gyspsy camp in the film, the foreign music, the presentation of different ethnic traditions, etc.) the question of criminal element in the French society based on another ethnic group. That was also an important aspect of The Godfather, as the film insisted on the Italian origin of the gang and its original texture related to special family and ethnic ties. The film starts, rightly so, by an image of "Momon" being bullied during school recess by "French" types and the source of the friendship between the two main characters. What do you think of this cinematographic association of criminality with a clear ethnic identification?
24. At the end the fate of "Momon" is known, but in the film the scenario and the dialogue between Momon and his wife clearly indicate that he has spent many years in jail. Do you think he should also pay for killing his friend, or do you accept that in an absolute level of morality he was right to avenge the 20-year old betrayal of his friend? Probe deeply into your own sense of morality: do you accept that he will not be put in jail because: &. no one as the right to betray one's total friendship? or because, 2. after all Suttel was a disloyal person and a liar, who never told the truth, and cheated all his partners in crime, or 3. because Suttel was simply a petty criminal who, himself, treated life with total disregard? Or 4. any other reason?
25. What do you think of French gangster films offering glorification biopic of very bad people?
Mesrine
26. Mesrine is a very heavily edited story of the French "Ennemi public n° 1" in the late 60's and 70's. What is your ethic position vis à vis film scenarist that decide to offer a very idealized version of the life of a known criminal. Is it socially acceptable?
27. As presented in the film, all the way Mesrine tried to cover his criminal activities under the guise of a then very active political revolutionary environment. The film alludes to the "Baader gang"" in Germany, the "Red Brigades" in Italy and the "confident" in the film is a member of the underground revolutionary group "Action Directe" or a vague Algerian Liberation Group. Do you accept that Mesrine's criminal activities were first governed by his sense of social injustices? Or is that, for you, a "fig leaf," to give some social value to his uniquely criminal actions?
28. Analyze the personal pathology of Mesrine as the character presented in the film.
29. The last image of the film is striking: both at the same time a bleeding victim coldly executed by the French anti-gang elite group of Police and the justice punishing the criminal, a perfectly graphic illustration of the credo that governed the theme of the course this semester "Crime does not pay!". What is you own interpretation of that stunning cinematographic image?
30. For this film, the main actor, a well liked French actor, Vincent Cassell, treated it as an acting challenge and prepared according to a an "actor's studio" training: he gained a lot of weight -- like DeNiro in Raging Bull -- he studied Mesrine's peculiar type of aaccent (a pseudo English twang), his physical postures, etc. In the end the transformation was extraordinary and the nature of what kind of person actually Mesrine was sort of disappeared behind the extraordinary characterization by Vincent Cassell. One critic for Rotten Tomatoes wrote about the lead actor's performance: "Vincent Cassel is mesmerizing in the lead role. Even if it's less focused than its predecessor, it's more fun." That year the film won the two main Cesar: best main actor, best film. Superb performance, yes, except Cassell was not playing and admirable human being, but a despicable gangster. Morally do you object? Is that the role of film, to glorify bad guys?
31. Many critics have said that Mesrine was the French Scarface. Compare the two films and indicate if you agree or not with this judgment.
32. This semester because the theme of the course was the moral value of film depicting different types of crimes and a discussion about our capacity to judge the characters presented and to assess the film agreement with the rule that "public morality demands that the criminal had to be caught," we have seen a fair amount of films depicting despicable events. But, as a personal choice do you go see these films that are based on crime or other unpleasant event of our everyday life, or do you prefer uplifting, derivative and entertaining films that take you out of the realm of our dark reality?
Enjoy the Season's Holidays! Thank you.