The Franco-Algerian War Through a Twenty-First Century Lens - (War, Culture and Society) by Nicole Beth Wallenbrock (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

The Franco-Algerian War (1954-62) remains a powerful international symbol of Third Worldism and the finality of Empire. Through its nuanced analysis of the war's depiction in film, The Franco-Algerian War through a Twenty-First Century Lens locates an international reckoning with history that both condemns and exonerates past generations.

Algerian and French production partnerships-such as Hors-la-loi, (Outside the Law, Rachid Bouchareb, 2010) and Loubia Hamra (Bloody Beans, Narimane Mari, 2013)-are one of several ways citizens collaborate to unearth a shared history and its legacy. Nicole Beth Wallenbrock probes cinematic discourse to shed new light on topics including: the media revelation of torture and atomic bomb tests; immigration's role in the evolution of the war's meaning; and the complex relationship of the intertwined film cultures. The first chapter summarizes the Franco-Algerian War in 20th-century film, thus grounding subsequent queries with Algeria's moudjahid or freedom-fighter films and the French new wave's perceived disinterest in the conflict.

This book is an invaluable resource for scholars seeking to understand cinema's role in re-evaluating war and reconstructing international memory.

Review Quotes

"This close study, enriched by the author's interviews with some of the film directors, reveals 'the contradictions and ambivalence' about the legacy of Franco-Algerian conflict, often through the lens of the 'theory of the rhizome' ... This book is replete with incisive insights and supported not only with an impressive academic bibliography but also a 'filmography' of the nearly 200 films it cites. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty." --CHOICE

"[The] Franco-Algerian War through a Twenty-First Century Lens will be of particular interest to film historians who are looking for a more profound comprehension of the cinematic discourse of the Algerian Revolution beyond its historical context." --Review of Middle East Studies

"There has been a resurgence of critical interest in filmic representations of the war of Algerian independence in the past ten years ... Wallenbrock's book is a major contributor to this corpus." --H-France

"This is a brilliant and important book. The application of theory is exemplary, and - ever attentive to production contexts, neo-colonial tensions and the subtleties of each film text - Wallenbrock engagingly reflects on the ambiguities of recent trans-historical representations of the Franco-Algerian War. A fascinating meditation on memory, violence and cinema." --Guy Austin, Professor of French Studies, Newcastle University, UK

"The Franco-Algerian War Through a Twenty-First Century Lens provides a rich analysis of contemporary filmic representations of the war and opens new avenues of inquiry into transnational processes of remembrance." --Jennifer Howell, Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Illinois State University, USA

"The centrality of cinema in the Franco-Algerian relationship called for Nicole Wallenbrock's The Franco-Algerian War through a Twenty-First Century Lens. This wonderful scholarly intervention offers a fresh and important look at cinema as a the most visible site in the contest and transmission of the colonial, anticolonial, and post-colonial histories in France and Algeria. Her ability to deploy rigorous historical research, rich and thoughtful analysis of film and filmmakers over the past 70 years, and a personal touch that comes through her sustained oral histories with many leading directors, puts her into a unique class of film scholars. This book illustrates how film and cinema interacted with the past and how our present is informed by the media and art in this increasingly influential transnational arena." --James Le Sueur, Samuel Clark Waugh Distinguished Professor of International Relations and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA.

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