French Cinema: What Do You Know About It?
9:30 a.m., Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006
Webster Hall Auditorium
Admission: free

The French share the distinction for the invention of cinema at the end of the 19th century. France was the most important producer of films in the first 15 years of world filmmaking before yielding to the Americans during World War I. French cinema again took center stage in the 1930s with the “Poetic Realism” movement, after a decade of expressionist, Dadaist, and surrealist experimentation, then took the film world by storm with the New Wave in the 1950s and 60s after weathering the German Occupation in the 1940s. This presentation included a discussion of the high (and low) points, with emphasis on some masters and masterpieces along the way.

Dr. Alan Singerman has taught French language, literature, civilization, and film at Davidson (N.C.) College since 1982. He has studied in Paris, Strasbourg, Freiburg (Germany), and Montpellier, where he received a master’s degree in film studies while directing Davidson’s study abroad program. His most recent work is a textbook on French cinema, Apprentissage du cinéma français. Livre de l’étudiant, which Focus Publishing has now also published in English under the title French Cinema: The Student's Book.