History of French Cinema 2: 1950-present

TuTh 3:30–4:45 p.m. Dey 301, Prof. Hassan Melehy (hmelehy@unc.edu)

In this course, we will study some of the outstanding and memorable films from roughly the last sixty years of French cinema, beginning with the postwar boom in the film industry, including the French New Wave of the late 1950s and 1960s, and continuing through subsequent decades to the present. Some of the directors whose movies we will view and reflect on are Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, François Truffaut, Agnès Varda, Mathieu Kassovitz, and David Oelhoffen. In addition, we will study the vocabulary and concepts of film criticism so as to engage in critical writing.

Taught in English; films subtitled. Readings in English. Counts toward French major/minor and as an elective in the Global Cinema minor and the Film Studies major in English and Comparative Literature.

For French majors and minors, recommended preparation is FREN 300 and one of the following: FREN 255, 260, or 262; for all other students, recommended preparation is CMPL 143.
Gen Ed: VP, NA.