SELF ORIENTATION PROGRAMME JANUARY 2013

FRENCH CULTURE AND CIVILISATION

Introduction to the Arts in France

A very rich cultural heritage

Architecture Literature Music

Painting/Sculpture
Cinema

Architecture
From vestiges of Roman

Roman amphitheatres still in use today

Orange

Lyon (Fourvire)

buildings e.g. many 2000 years old Roman amphithtres still in use today To ultra modern designs such as the Centre Pompidou in Metz

Notre Dame de Paris 12th-13th centuries

Cathedrals
Saint Jean, Lyon 12-14th centuries

Chateaux
Chteau du Sou (Rhne) 14th century
Chenonceau (Loire Valley) 16th century

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FRENCH CULTURE AND CIVILISATION

19th century buildings

Eiffel Tower Arc de Triomphe

19th century buildings

Opra de Paris Universit Lyon 3

20th century buildings

The Louvre Pyramid
The Grande Arche de la Dfense

21st century Buildings

Viaduct de Millau (2004)
Centre Pompidou - Metz (2010)

Literature
Marie de France (12th century)
Written in Anglo-Norman (old French language)

Francois Rabelais Gargantua et Pantagruel

Literature 16th century

Ronsard

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Literature 17th century

Cyrano de Bergerac Molire

Literature 17th Century

Madame de Lafayette

Literature 18th century

Voltaire (Candide)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social contract)

Literature 18th Century

Olympe de Gouje
1st feminist! Payed a heavy price for fighting womens cause

Literature 19th century Victor Hugo

(Hunchback of Notre Dame)

Alexandre Dumas (Count of Monte Cristo)

Honor de Balzac (La comdie Humaine)

Literature 19th century

Emile Zola (Lassomoir, Germinal)

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Paul Verlaine/Arthur Rimbaut (Symbolist poets)

Literature 19th century

Gustave Flaubert (Romantic realist)

Literature 19th Century

George Sand
Louise Michel

Marcel Proust (In search of lost time)

Literature 20th century

Jean-Paul Sartre/Simone de Beauvoir (existentialist philosophers)

Albert Camus (1913-1960 - The Outsider)

Literature 20th century

Antoine de Saint Exupry
(1900-1944 The Aviator, Southern Mail , Night Flight, the Little Prince)

Literature 20th century

Marguerite Duras
With Alain RobbeGrillet et Nathalie Sarraute, created a new genre: nouveau roman, The lover Moderato cantabile

Literature 20th century

Marguerite Yourcenar
1st woman acadmicienne

LAcadmie Franaise: founded in 1635 to protect French language

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17 Nobel Prizes for French literature since 1901

1901 - Sully Prudhomme

Contemporary writers
Bernard Henri Levy

(The first Nobel Prize in literature) 1904 - Frdric Mistral (wrote in Occitan) 1911 - Maurice Maeterlinck (Belgian) 1915 - Romain Rolland 1921 - Anatole France 1927 - Henri Bergson 1937 - Roger Martin du Gard 1947 - Andr Gide

1952 - Franois Mauriac 1957 - Albert Camus 1960 - Saint-John Perse 1964 - Jean-Paul Sartre (declined the prize) 1969 - Samuel Beckett (Irish, wrote in English and French) 1985 - Claude Simon 2000 - Gao Xingjian

Michel Houellebecq

Contemporary writers
Tatiana de Rosnay
Text

Bandes dessines: a very popular art form

International Comic Strip Festival Angoulme - Poitou Charente 31/01/2013 to 03/02/13

Composers
Hector Berlioz
(1803-69 - Symphonie Fantastique)

Georges Bizet
(1838-75 - Carmen)

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FRENCH CULTURE AND CIVILISATION

Jacques Offenbach Leo Delibes (1836 -1891 - Coppelia, Lakm) (1819-1880 Tales of Hoffman)

Composers

Debussy (1862-1908 Clair de Lune) Ravel (1878-1937 Bolero)

Composers
Saint Saens
(1835-1921 -Carnival of the animals)

Contemporary music
Jean-Michel Jarre Gipsy Kings

Famous abroad unknown to French young people?

Edith Piaf

Charles Aznavour

Painters- 17th century

Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) George de la Tour (1593-1662)

Painters: 18th century

Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) Francois Boucher (1703-1770)

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Painters: 19th century

Edouard Manet (1832-1883) Berthe Morisot (1841-1895)

Painters: 19th century

Camille Pissaro (1830-1903) Paul Czanne (1839-1906)

Painters: 19th century Edgar Degas

(1834-1917)

Painters: 19th century

Pierre-Auguste Renoir
(1841-1919)

Claude Monet (1840-1926)

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)

Painters: 19th century

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) George Seurat (1859-1891)

Pierre Bonnard 1867-1947

th century Painters: 20 Marie Laurencin

1883-1956

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Georges Braque
(1882-1963)

Painters

Henri Matisse (1869-1954)

Marc Chagall (1887-1985)

Painters

Bernard Buffet (1928-1999)

Sculpture
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
Camille Claudel (1864-1943)

French Cinema
France : Birth country of cinema. Moving pictures invented

by the Lumire brothers in Lyon - dubbed the fathers of cinema Created the worlds first cinema inside a caf in Paris in 1895 Early 20th century: Charles Path produced so many moving pictures that he became known as the Napoleon of film. 20s and 30s: Because of war and recession not much happening apart from a few film makers: Marcel Carn, Ren Clair, Jacques Tati and Jean Renoir. Late 1950s-1970s: New Wave (Nouvelle Vague) with Jean Goddard, Louis Malle, Francois Truffaud and Chabrol amongst others.

French Cinema
All about artistic integrity Usually low budget, few special effects, all about stories,

French Cinema
The French movie industry is third in the world after USA and

narratives and character development Most French people support the idea that it is legitimate to protect cultural activities from pure market laws and it is the role of the State to protect them and if necessary subsidise them with public money. This is why there is a Minister for culture. Contrary to the USA where a movie is seen as an entertainment and its success is measured in $, in France a movie is considered a message sent by a director for our reflection. Its success is measured by the number of viewers.

India and France is the only Western country where foreign films represent less than 50% of the market : in Germany, Italy and UK, they represent more than 80%. The number of Art Houses in France is much higher than anywhere else in the world and there is not only Cannes, but there are several very interesting festivals which illustrate the interest of the French for cinema (Deauville and its Festival of American Cinema, Nantes and its Festival of African, Asian and Latin-American Cinema, etc...). With 5,366 cinemas, France enjoys the highest number of screens/million inhabitants : 89 (vs. 60 in Germany, 56 in UK and 24 in Japan).

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French Cinema
Huge competition from American block busters but

Typical genres
Romantic Drama: Heartbreaker, Ive loved you

French films are still very popular and about 100 or so are made each year. 300 different films shown every week in Paris. Even if audiences are declining, French people still tend to go to the cinema a lot compared with other nations. The French equivalent of the Oscars Awards is called "les Csars" and the ceremony takes place in February too. The Cannes film festival is a very important global event.

so long
Comedy: Amelie, Le diner de cons Society: La Haine, The Class Biography: Coco before Chanel, La vie en rose Thriller: Tell no one, Mesrine Public enemy No

A few French films popular abroad

AMELIE

A few French films popular abroad

I VE LOVED YOU SO LONG COCO BEFORE CHANEL

TELL NO ONE

A few French films popular abroad

LA VIE EN ROSE THE CLASS

A few French films popular abroad

The artist (2011)
Black & white Silent film Won 5 Oscars in 2012: Best director Best Actor Best film Best costume Best original score

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A few French films popular abroad

Rust and Bone (2012)

A few famous French actors

Alain Delon Gerard Depardieu

Amour (2012)

A few famous French actors

Romain Duris Daniel Auteil

A few famous French actors

Vincent Cassel Jean Reno

A few famous French actresses

Catherine Deneuve Brigitte Bardot

A few famous French actresses

Audrey Tautou Juliette Binoche

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A few famous French actresses

Marion Cotillard Emmanuelle Beart

Two famous Anglo- French actresses

Charlotte Rampling Kristin Scott Thomas

1 Euro

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