French Cinema

Drazin, a lecturer on film at the Queen Mary University of London, offers at once a condensed history of French cinema, a spirited apologia for French films, and an admiring appreciation of them. In his opening chapter, Drazin provides a glimpse of the birth of French cinema, which was also the birth in many ways of world cinema. Narrating the story of the great Lumi%C3%A8re brothers, he shows that their Lumi%C3%A8re Cin%C3%A9matographie improved upon Edison's Kinetoscope by providing an image that could be projected onto a screen rather than having to be viewed through a peephole; the Cin%C3%A9matographie was light enough to be carried around by a single operator and did not require electricity to operate. Drazin's history ranges widely over numerous figures in French cinema, from Georges M%C3%A9li%C3%A8s to Jean Renoir, Fran%C3%A7ois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, and Eric Rohmer, and movements such as Cahiers du cin%C3%A9ma. In a study that is by turns plodding and engaging, Drazin convincingly concludes that French cinema has always operated with an openness to far-reaching questions regarding human nature and culture; in contrast to the mass entertainment that Hollywood produces with such efficiency, the appeal of French cinema is that of the timeless over the ephemeral. (June)