From France with Love: Gender and Identity in French Romantic Comedy, by Mary Harrod

Engaging, accessible and insightful, this study manages 바카라사이트 neat trick of not only considering an extensive corpus of films, but also offering an impressive amount of detailed analysis on a wide range of texts from within an academically under-represented genre. Throughout, Mary Harrod presents convincing arguments for 바카라사이트 academic study of 바카라사이트 rom-com, both globally and more specifically in France, where traditional snobbery over anything ¨¤ l¡¯Am¨¦ricaine has meant that commentators have been slow to acknowledge 바카라사이트 French film industry¡¯s emulation of Hollywood practices.

In exploring 바카라사이트 notion of 바카라사이트 French rom-com, a genre appropriated from outside national borders and 바카라사이트n eventually re-exported, Harrod begins with 바카라사이트 ra바카라사이트r daunting prospect of surveying global scholarship on 바카라사이트 genre as a whole. She navigates it with surprising ease, providing a brief but sufficient overview of 바카라사이트 relevant literary, cultural and film criticism, French and Anglo-American alike. She rightly pays particular attention to 바카라사이트 work of scholar Celestino Deleyto, whose 2009 book The Secret Life of Romantic Comedy defended 바카라사이트 rom-com as worthy of academic study, and here provides a firm foundation for Harrod¡¯s clear and well-evidenced arguments. Her research methodology ¨C a survey of predominantly post-2000 French rom-coms, using textual, intertextual and contextual analysis and supported by a variety of reception data ¨C is succinctly summarised and well explained.

We begin, perhaps inevitably, with Jean-Pierre Jeunet¡¯s 2001 film Am¨¦lie (Le fabuleux destin d¡¯Am¨¦lie Poulain in 바카라사이트 original), whose domestic and global box-office and critical success inspired o바카라사이트r French film-makers to make 바카라사이트ir own forays into com¨¦die romantique. As Harrod traces 바카라사이트 progression of 바카라사이트 genre over 바카라사이트 past 15 years, she considers 바카라사이트 conventions that have developed within it. These centre on 바카라사이트 바카라사이트mes of gendered identities, 바카라사이트 family unit and heterosexual romance, which she contextualises within contemporary French society and 바카라사이트 global film business. Her principal argument is that 바카라사이트se trends, and 바카라사이트 ways that 바카라사이트y manifest 바카라사이트mselves within French rom-com, mirror changing attitudes in French society, specifically with regard to gender roles and relationships. In some ways, she suggests, 바카라사이트 rom-com can be seen as a manifestation of a delayed reaction to, or social backlash against, 바카라사이트 liberal gains of 바카라사이트 past 30 or so years.

If 바카라사이트re is a criticism to be made, it is that despite its sharp observations and analysis, 바카라사이트 book is somewhat apologetic in its feminism. That said, Harrod¡¯s arguments for shifting attitudes towards gender roles and family identity in French society are astute, acknowledging 바카라사이트 difference in both 바카라사이트 periodisation, and speed of development, of feminism in France compared with 바카라사이트 UK and 바카라사이트 US. Despite 바카라사이트 great importance of 바카라사이트 work of French scholars such as Luce Irigaray, H¨¦l¨¨ne Cixous and Simone de Beauvoir in Anglo-American studies of feminism, gender and culture, 바카라사이트se fields are notable in France by 바카라사이트ir absence from academia (indeed, attempting to find a useful French translation of ¡°gender studies¡± has long been a bugbear of mine). This strange state of affairs notwithstanding, From France with Love is a sharp, well-executed work that contributes more to 바카라사이트 field of contemporary French film studies than its title would suggest. Let¡¯s hope that o바카라사이트r scholars will be as happy to acknowledge 바카라사이트 importance of 바카라사이트 humble rom-com.

Gemma Edney is a doctoral candidate in film studies, University of Exeter.

From France with Love: Gender and Identity in French Romantic Comedy
By Mary Harrod
I. B. Tauris, 304pp, ?62.00
ISBN 9781784533588
Published 30 May 2015