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Reviewed by:
  • Directory of World Cinema: France ed. by Tim Palmer and Charlie Michael
  • Keith Reader
Directory of World Cinema: France. Edited by Tim Palmer and Charlie Michael. (Directory of World Cinema, 15). Bristol: Intellect, 2013. 325 pp., ill.

I was not sure before embarking on this review what precisely a ‘directory’ of cinema — as opposed to, say, an encyclopedia or a companion — might be. After ploughing my way through this uneven and poorly conceived volume, I am none the wiser. It opens with a short piece on Céline Sciamma’s Tomboy, described as ‘film of the year’ (p. 8), though how and by whom that title was awarded remains unclear, and meanders its way thereafter through a collocation of essays taking in genres, directors, [End Page 131] and one isolated study of an actor (not really a star whatever the editors think), Albert Dupontel. The rationale for the choice of material is by and large obscure and the quality of the essays extremely variable. Margaret C. Flinn’s on ‘Documentary and Realism’ and François Massonnat’s on the policier merit particular praise, but others too often dwindle into little more than checklists of films, actors, or directors. Each section consists of an overview essay plus a series of ‘reviews’, each in its turn made up of a summary (nearly always giving details readily available elsewhere) and a ‘critique’ — in actual fact more akin to a programme note, of variable quality. Tim Palmer on Renoir’s underrated La Nuit du carrefour and Jonah Horwitz on Jean Epstein’s Cœur fidèle and Marcel L’Herbier’s El Dorado are particularly admirable. The classificatory criteria are sometimes open to question, so that Alain Resnais is lumped in with the New Wave and Jean Renoir’s Le Crime de Monsieur Lange with what is/are a trifle puzzlingly labelled ‘cinema(s) of quality’. There is a cursory ‘recommended reading’ section, followed by a brief list of online resources and a ‘test your knowledge’ quiz (!), but no index. It is difficult to work out what the intended readership for the volume might be, and, alas, all but impossible to regard it as anything other than an attractively produced and periodically engaging ragbag.

Keith Reader
University of London Institute in Paris
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