Kamera. The French Issue.

Editor Oliver Berry introduces a special issue of Kamera devoted to films from "a country where cinema continues to be a national obsession and a highly-respected artform," segueing straight into Ben McCann's brief introduction topped off with "A (Highly Subjective) Top Ten French Films of All Time." All in all, the pieces here are swift and to the point:

• Edward Lamberti considers Jean-Pierre Melville, recently "subject to a lot of renewed interest," and reviews The French Cinema Book, edited by Michael Temple and Michael Witt (see also Sam Rohdie's review for Screening the Past).

• Luc Besson gets two pieces, which might be overly generous, considering Deryck Swan's observation that he's "a director acutely aware of overstaying his welcome." Nonetheless, besides that career overview, there's also Adrian Gargett's look back at Subway - "fashion magazine chic is fused with pop-art surrealism - which creates a world of totally fantastic 'reality' situated distinctly in contemporary Paris."

• McCann contributes two more pieces, one on how French cinema has dealt with the Occupation (and on the near-impossibility of objectivity in any history) - "[W]hereas the German cultural and political elite have been able to address the legacies of the past, the French, and in particular the French intelligentsia, have been reluctant to examine the issues of the Resistance and Franco-German collaboration during the Second World War" - and on French animation, contrasting two trends more or less exemplified by Les Triplettes de Belleville and Interstella 5555.

Posted by dwhudson at January 27, 2005 7:13 AM