Contenu du sommaire : Le cinéma populaire et ses idéologies

Christelle TARAUD, Angélique and the Orient : A Certain Vision of the Other ? The French television series Angélique, five episodes appearing from 1963 to 1966, was a tremendous popular and commercial success. Based upon a clever mixture of exotic adventurism and soft eroticism, it recounted the escapades of a rebellious, emancipated woman of the eighteenth century. The courageous and intelligent heroine, Angelique, represented a liberated woman who prefigured the « sexual liberation » of the years to come, in particular, the right to control her own body. Less progressive, the fact that Angélique was abducted by Barbary pirates meant that, for many spectators, this television series transmitted stereotypical images of Orientals and a reductive or ambiguous vision of the Orient. Presented to the public immediately following the war in Algeria, Angélique is deeply marked by colonial ideology and imagery.

Larry PORTIS, Hierarchy and Authority in the Films of Louis de Funès The commercially motivated films of Louis de Funès reveal a ferocious scepticism and irony concerning social pretentions and abuses of power. In these films, de Funès plays undignified characters whose actions call into question subordination in all areas of life and in all social contexts. He develops a constant critique of hierarchical stuctures by caricaturing personalitiy types. French people, although generally the object of de Funès'criticisms, respond positively because viewing these films acts as catharsis.

Vincent CHENILLE and Marc GAUCHEE, Bosses and Political Leaders in French Films, 1974-2002 The 14 films between 1974 and 2000 featuring bosses and political leaders as main characters do not so much reflect political reality as accompany it by commenting and exploiting it. One of the constant themes is the submission of political leaders to powerful economic interests. Political power is almost always seen as influenced by more powerful forces. However, films featuring both bosses and political leaders tend to disappear by 1990, leaving the boss. When political leaders have been portrayed in recent years, it has been to assume moral responsibility for any corruption that exists.

Jean-Pierre GARNIER, A Radiant Past : Les Choristes as Window onto Popular Nostalgia. The enormous success enjoyed by Les Choristes was surprising to critics. But this success is logical given the political and ideological climate in France. The collapse of utopian ideals and ideas, along with the pessimism reighing in France, explains in great part why the « general public » has so favorably received films (such as Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain and Être et avoir among others) that offer a mythified image of the past as something consoling and reassuring. Analysis of Les Choristes produces insights about this phenomenon.

Saïd TAMBA, On Colonial Cinema as a Popular Genre. At its very beginnings, filmmaking offered the possibility of using images from the colonized parts of the world and those that were in the process of being colonized. In its construction of an extra-European reality, neo-orientalist fantasies were incorporated into an imagined cosmos infused with sexual symbolism and dominated by American production techniques. The advent of decolonization led to the emergence of national cinemas and the possibility of national cinematographic expression in formerly colonized regions, but the limits were rapidly perceived : low production, restricted markets, and problems of distribution and marketing.

Anne-Sophie PERRIAUX, Beware of the Original? The Cases of Bollywood and Kanowood. India and Nigeria are today, with the United States, the most powerful producers of films in the world both in terms of numbers of films and the revenues derived from them. However, if the cases of Hollywood, Bollywood and Kanowood are similar in these respects, the differences are also great. Especially, Bollywood and Kanowood reveal that the process of « cultural homogenization » often attributed to Hollywood and coupled to « globalization » is more complex than it seems.

Tania EL KHOURY, Lebanese Cinemas and their Publics. In Lebanon a long period of civil war contributed to a calling into question of social and inter-ethnic relationships. The recent history of Lebanese cinema reveals social and cultural contradictions contained beneath the surface which violently exploded between 1975 and 1990. The beginning of the civil war in 1975 changed film production with the destruction of a developed infrastructure including both film studios and movie theatres. After the war, commercial cinema was replaced by a new current of film production animated by young, foreign filmmakers and by returned exiles.