Overview
North Africa has captured the French imagination for centuries and shaped it in ways the French themselves have yet to acknowledge. The advent of cinema allowed artists and propagandists alike to exploit a new medium in their romanticized depictions of France's imperial mission in Algeria and Morocco. The films of the 1920s expressed a cautious optimism about the prospect of co-operation between Europeans and Muslims - with Europeans dominant. By the 1930s, however, attitudes toward indigenous North Africans had hardened. In response to demands for liberal reform in Algeria, French settlers appealed to racial solidarity and protection of white womanhood. The films of this period warned against the perils of miscegenation and portrayed the Foreign Legion and the settlers as the defenders of white, European civilization's frontiers. In this study, David Henry Slavin uses such key colonial-era films as ""L'Atlantide"" (1921; remade in 1932) and ""Pepe le Moko"" (1937) to document how the French cinema reflected the changing policies and values of French colonialism in the inter-war period. Slavin is most interested in the ""blind spots"" within these films, the avoidance or denial of colonial realities that becomes apparent when sound-era remakes are compared with their original silent versions. The reworking of history and the interplay of history and memory evident in this process still hinders France's ability to confront the legacy of its colonial past.
Full Product Details
Author: David Henry Slavin
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Imprint: Johns Hopkins University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.30cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.567kg
ISBN: 9780801866166
ISBN 10: 0801866162
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 09 October 2001
Recommended Age: From 17
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Out of Print
Availability: In Print
Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock.
Reviews
<p>Slavin takes most of us into unchartered territory, and as such his book represents an important contribution to the study of French colonial culture.--Owen White H-France Book Reviews
Exhaustive and insightful... It deftly combines in a single, sweeping breath a thorough discussion of a dozen period films with a meticulous examination of the historical context of their production as seen from often divergent political perspectives. -- HA(c)di-Abdel Jaouad, French Review
Slavin takes most of us into unchartered territory, and as such his book represents an important contribution to the study of French colonial culture. -- Owen White H-France Book Reviews Exhaustive and insightful... It deftly combines in a single, sweeping breath a thorough discussion of a dozen period films with a meticulous examination of the historical context of their production as seen from often divergent political perspectives. -- Hedi-Abdel Jaouad French Review 2003 In this impressive and carefully researched book, David Henry Slavin shows how French popular culture helped create and sustain the racial hierarchies that colonial rule and the mission civilitrice required... This book will surely serve for a very long time as an indispensable guide to French colonial cinema. -- Michael Provence Histoire Sociale 2003 The book's strengths lie in its detailed and informative contextualization of French colonial cinema, especially those films made in or about the Maghreb, and in its ability to reveal general trends and 'blind spots' that characterise these films. Scope: Online Journal of Film Studies Slavin's enthusiasm for his topic and his determinedly critical stance toward French racism are admirable. He raises a range of fascinating questions and engages the reader's interest in French colonial history and film. -- Heike Schmidt American Historical Review 2004
Author Information
David Henry Slavin is a visiting assistant professor of history at Knox College.
