This thesis investigates the representation of modern women in “long” 1960s (1959-1973) French cinema beyond the New Wave. Using a sociocultural and feminist approach, my corpus consists of the 1,455 feature-length, French-majority produced, fiction films released in France from 1959 to 1973. Through statistical analysis, I identify and trace the trajectory of trends in the representation of women across the period’s cinema. This is placed in conjunction with close analysis of films that prominently engage with the competing tensions facing women amidst the rapidly shifting sociocultural landscape, one caught between post-war conservatism and the more visible feminist polemics of the mid-1970s. Statistical and textual analysis is then placed in dialogue with sociohistorical surveys, mass media, archival film reviews and English- and French-language film and gender scholarship to examine cinematic engagement with societal debates concerning women’s changing status. Focusing on both the private and public sphere, my analysis is structured thematically, with chapters focused on cinematic reassessments of the housewife; ideal female partner; mother; and working woman. My research aims to enrich scholarship by providing a more comprehensive study of the representation of modern womanhood in both popular and auteur cinema across the long 1960s than seen thus far; a pivotal period for women’s rights and lives yet one that that is routinely overshadowed in film scholarship by the more academically popular New Wave and May 68.
The modern woman in “long” 1960s French cinema:: beyond the New Wave
Miller, E. (Author). 1 Feb 2021
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy