La Parisienne in cinema: Between art and life

by Felicity Chaplin

Overview

Chic, sophisticated, seductive and enigmatic, the Parisienne possesses a je ne sais quoi that makes her difficult to define. But who or what is the Parisienne, and how is she depicted in cinema? The first book-length study on the subject combines scholarship in the fields of art history, literature and fashion to enrich our understanding of this intriguing cinematic figure, simultaneously offering new perspectives on film. Accessible and wide-ranging, it will be of immediate interest to students and researchers working in film studies, French studies and the broader humanities, as well as cinephiles and Francophiles alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781526139535
Publisher:	Manchester University Press
Publication date:	05/07/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	5.43(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.46(d)

About the Author

Felicity Chaplin is Scholarly Teaching Fellow in French Studies at Monash University

Table of Contents

Introduction: ‘What’s she like?’
1 Muse
2 Cosmopolite
3 Icon of fashion
4 Femme fatale
5 Courtesan
6 Star
Conclusion: ‘Look, let’s start all over again. What’s she like?’
Index

Editorial Reviews

"In this well-researched and insightful monograph, Felicity Chaplin presents the figure of the Parisienne in cinema "between art and life", concentrating on 1950s and 1960s French and Hollywood film. She covers approximately four films per chapter, over six main sections, using "Parisienne" as both a noun and an adjective, and writing of what she terms the "Parisienne-ness" of her subjects....This book is a valuable addition to film studies, fashion studies and general cultural studies. The style is engaging, and the research is wide-ranging and thought provoking." - Dervila cooke, Dublin City University, H-France Review Vol. 18 (April 2018), No. 92

"'La Parisienne', as Chaplin explains, stands for an image of the city personified by a female figure. In the mid-nineteenth century, this became synonymous with the figure of an urban woman, an emblem of modernity whose mode of dress expressed her identity. She can be both artist and muse. Her class origins are not fixed: she might come from the demi-monde or the bourgeoiseie. In context, she can embody sexual openness and experimentation, or refined elegance and restraint.
In her deft, dense, intriguing book, Chaplin has delineated an area of research; she has also created a space or set of possibilities for studies that can take her project further, deeper, into more specialised areas or specific forms of critical engagement." - Philippa Hawker, Australian Book Review

"Any study of as broad a corpus as is indicated by this book's title is likely to have multiple aims, and Felicity Chaplin's book seems to set itself not just the objective of adding cinema to the list of art forms in which La Parisienne frequently figures and has been studied (painting and drawing), but of using a typically art historical methodology (iconography) to do so... Approving of Alloway's anti-evaluative and implicitly anti-auteurist idea of culture as a continuum, Chaplin introduces her corpus as one that ranges across this continuum... Chaplin's book certainly does extensive impressive groundwork for further studies of the Parisienne figure in cinema..." - Kate Ince, University of Birmingham, EuropeNow, Issue 22 (2018)

From the Publisher