Reframing Difference: Beur and Banlieue Filmmaking in France - Softcover

Tarr, Carrie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0719068770 ISBN 13: 9780719068775

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2005

Synopsis

'Reframing difference' is the first major study of two overlapping strands of contemporary French cinema, 'cinéma beur' (films by young directors of Maghrebi descent) and 'cinéma de banlieue' (films set in France's disadvantaged outer-city housing estates). These films mobilise the voices and narratives of France's most stigmatised postcolonial others to address issues of ethnicity and difference which are central to today's debates about what it means to be French. Carrie Tarr's insightful account of the development of 'beur' and 'banlieue' filmmaking - from the 1980s to the present and from the margins to the mainstream - draws on a wide range of films, including Mehdi Charef's 'Le Thé au harem d'Archimède' (Tea in the Harem), Mathieu Kassowitz's 'La Haine' (Hate) and Djamel Bensalah's hit comedy, 'Le ciel, les oiseaux... et ta mère' (Boys on the Beach). Her analyses compare the work of male and female, majority and minority filmmakers at particular junctures, and emphasise the significance of authorship in the representation of gender and ethnicity. Foregrounding such issues as the quest for identity, the negotiation of space and the recourse to memory and history, she argues that films by directors of Maghrebi descent challenge and reframe the symbolic spaces of French culture. This timely book is essential reading for all those interested in the relationship between cinema and citizenship in a multicultural society.

About this title

About the Author

Carrie Tarr is Senior Research Fellow at Thames Valley University, London

From the Back Cover

Reframing difference is the first major study of two overlapping strands of contemporary French cinema, cinema beur (films by young directors of Maghrebi immigrant origin) and cinema de banlieue (films set in France's disadvantaged outer-city estates). Carrie Tarr's insightful account draws on a wide range of films, from directors such as Mehdi Charef, Mathieu Kassovitz and Djamel Bensalah. Her analyses compare the work of male and female, majority and minority film-makers, and emphasise the significance of authorship in the representation of gender and ethnicity. Foregrounding such issues as the quest for identity, the negotiation of space and the recourse to memory and history, she argues that these films challenge and reframe the symbolic spaces of French culture, addressing issues of ethnicity and difference which are central to today's debates about what it means to be French. This timely book is essential reading for anyone interested in the relationship between cinema and citizenship in a multicultural society.

Edition details

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0719068770
• ISBN 13: 9780719068775
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 240