Contemporary Francophone Cinema: The Personal & The Political

Code

MLAC3188

School

Modern Languages and Cultures

Level

3

Credits

20

Semesters

Full Year UK

Summary

​​This module provides final-year students studying French as part of their degree with the opportunity to study in some depth eight contemporary French-language films that deal in different ways with the interaction between personal and political aspects of contemporary life. The module will encourage students to engage with the films both thematically as texts that articulate important contemporary issues, and also formally as films that draw on specific cinematic techniques and make a series of aesthetic choices in order to engage with the personal and the political.
 
The first four films in the module deal primarily with issues of identity and personal development: Céline Sciamma; ‘Bande de filles’ (2014); Mia Hansen-Løve, ‘L’Avenir’ (2016); Laurent Cantet ‘L’Atelier’ (2017) & Laura Wandel, ‘Un Monde’ (2021). The films in the second half of the module deal primarily with issues around work, economy and political struggle: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, ‘Deux jours, une nuit’ (2014); Stéphane Brizé, ‘En guerre’ (2018); Robin Campillo ‘120 BPM’ (2017) & Julie Lecoustre & Emmanuel Marre, ‘Rien à foutre’ (2021). The module will situate each film with a broader social, political and philosophical context, and consider the distinctive aesthetic and thematic contribution it makes in this field.   
 
The films in the module will allow students to engage at a sophisticated level with the way in which narrative cinema engages with the contemporary world. Weekly online lectures on each of the films will lead into workshop activities, including close reading of film sequences and detailed in-class discussion of selected reading on the films. ​

Target Students

Optional module for all students taking French as part of their UG plan.

Co-requisites

Modules you must take in the same academic year, or have taken in a previous year, to enrol in this module:

• French 3 (MLAC3082)

Classes

• One 2-hour seminar each week for 10 weeks
• One 1-hour lecture each week for 11 weeks

Assessment

• 50% Coursework 1: 1 x 2,500 word essay
• 50% Coursework 2: 1 x 2,500 word essay

Assessed by end of spring semester

Educational Aims

Learning Outcomes

1. Knowledge and Understanding:  

•    ​Thorough, comparative understanding of representative plays written since the end of World War Two in France (A4)
•     ​Understanding of social, cultural, biographical and philosophical issues relating to the set-texts (A4)
•     ​Understanding of formal resources of theatre as explored in the texts studied and of techniques of literary and textual analysis appropriate to their study (A5)  

2. Intellectual Skills:  

•     ​Further development of techniques of literary appreciation acquired at Year I (B1)
•     ​Reading and interpretative skills appropriate to an understanding of the material studied (B1, B2, B4)
•     ​Critical analysis of primary and secondary materials (B2, B4, B5)  
•     ​Understanding of complex ideas in their socio-historical and intellectual context (B3)
•     ​Ability to develop arguments in discussion and in writing (B6, B7, B8)
•     ​Ability to integrate feedback, reflecting on prior performance to improve assessed work (D9)

3. Professional Skills:  

•     ​Reading and critical evaluation of sophisticated texts in French (C1, C3)  
•     ​Essay-writing (C3)  
•     ​Independent work on primary and secondary source materials (C5)
•     ​Use of library and internet resources (C5)
•     ​Presentation of work in accordance with academic conventions (C6)

4. Transferable Skills:  

•     ​Oral and written communication skills (D1)
•     ​Critical evaluation of texts (D2)
•     ​Independent study (D4)
•     ​Time organisation; meeting deadlines (D7)  
•     ​Production of word-processed coursework (D8)  
•     ​Self-reliance, self-confidence (D10)

Conveners

• Dr John Marks