The Ethnographic Optic: Jean Rouch, Chris Marker, Alain Resnais, and the Turn Inward in 1960s French Cinema (New Directions in National Cinemas) - Softcover

Astourian, Laure

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253069599 ISBN 13: 9780253069597

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2024

Synopsis

The Ethnographic Optic traces the surprising role of ethnography in French cinema in the 1960s and examines its place in several New Wave fictions and cinéma vérité documentaries during the final years of the French colonial empire.

Focusing on prominent French filmmakers Jean Rouch, Chris Marker, and Alain Resnais, author Laure Astourian elucidates their striking pivot from centering their work on distant lands to scrutinizing their own French urban culture. As awareness of the ramifications of the shrinking empire grew within metropolitan France, these filmmakers turned inward what their similarly white, urban, bourgeois predecessors had long turned outward toward the colonies: the ethnographic gaze.

Featuring some of the most canonical and best-loved films of the French tradition, such as Moi, un Noir, La jetée, and Muriel, this is an essential book for readers interested in national identity and cinema.

About this title

About the Author

Laure Astourian is Associate Professor of French at Bentley University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0253069599
• ISBN 13: 9780253069597
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 264