Overview

Brutal Intimacy is the first book to explore the fascinating films of contemporary France, ranging from mainstream genre spectaculars to arthouse experiments, and from wildly popular hits to films that deliberately alienate the viewer. Twenty-first-century France is a major source of international cinema-diverse and dynamic, embattled yet prosperous-a national cinema offering something for everyone. Tim Palmer investigates France's growing population of women filmmakers, its buoyant vanguard of first-time filmmakers, the rise of the controversial cinema du corps, and France's cinema icons: auteurs like Olivier Assayas, Claire Denis, Bruno Dumont, Gaspar Noé, and stars such as Vincent Cassel and Jean Dujardin. Analyzing dozens of breakthrough films, Brutal Intimacy situates infamous titles alongside many yet to be studied in the English language. Drawing on interviews and the testimony of leading film artists, Brutal Intimacy promises to be an influential treatment of French cinema today, its evolving rivalry with Hollywood, and its ambitious pursuits of audiences in Europe, North America, and around the world.

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9780819568274

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Reviews

Highly recommended (for) lower-division undergraduates through faculty. --RP Kinsman, Choice

Written intelligently and with great fervour, Brutal Intimacy is a successful first book from Palmer and a welcome addition to French film scholarship. Not only should it be of great help to undergraduate students, but also to existing cinema literates and teachers, looking to further their learning and understanding of the modern French film environment. Leo Collis, Film International

Highly recommended (for) lower-division undergraduates through faculty.--RP Kinsman, Choice Through its breadth, depth and the many films referenced, this book is a celebration of French cinema. The balance between detailed descriptions of the films, concise argument and clear language broadens this book's audience.--Caroline Walters, Film-Philosophy Written intelligently and with great fervour, Brutal Intimacy is a successful first book from Palmer and a welcome addition to French film scholarship. Not only should it be of great help to undergraduate students, but also to existing cinema literates and teachers, looking to further their learning and understanding of the modern French film environment.--Leo Collis, Film International Ultimately, Brutal Intimacy will prove to be a useful guide for students (undergraduate and postgraduate), teachers and lovers of contemporary French cinema...--Andrew Asibong, H-France Review Highly recommended (for) lower-division undergraduates through faculty.--RP Kinsman, Choice (P)erhaps Palmer's defence of the young and the new is precisely what French film studies needs at this present moment.--Emma Wilson, French Studies Surveying the film d'auteur of the last decade or so, Brutal Intimacy accomplishes something rare and noteworthy: to study contemporary art works with the critical distance of a cultural historian. This is truly a 'history of the present time.'--Alan Williams, author of Republic of Images: A History of French Filmmaking and professor of French and cinema studies, Rutgers University These beautifully balanced, sensitive analyses of mainstream and popular films--as well as the rich group of films by young and well-established women directors--Palmer explores how French cinema is inescapably French even when it tries not to be.--Phil Powrie, professor of cinema studies, University of Sheffield, general editor of Studies in French Cinema

Author Information

Tim Palmer, a native of Beaver, PA., is a writer and photographer who has explored America from Alaska to Florida. His other books are Rivers of Pennsylvania and Stanislaus: The Struggle for a River.

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