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Preface
The relationship of French national identity to its cinema is a well-established field. Yet so far, most studies have either taken a broad historical approach or focused on a particular director or period. Using various theoretical approaches, this book investigates an area as of today ill- or untreated by scholars: what is the relationship of film form to the historical and social reflections of a given work, whether they be overt or hidden?
To answer this question, I will make a close formal analysis of ten French war films from across the twentieth century. One significant challenge is to appropriately define the area of study, for the French war film is quite different from its Anglo-American counterpart, and this project undertakes a gradual redefinition of this sub-genre of the historical film.
War films are a subject of choice because they react to, or seek to represent, particular moments of crisis for national identity, especially considering France's troubled experiences during the past hundred years. Thus, one can examine films made under the shadow of war as well as movies made at a historical remove from their subject. This duality of temporal distance and social function allows a dual prism: looking at movies as