{"title":"Retro Visions","authors":"Vanessa Brutsche","doi":"10.1215/00161071-10350089","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n While the trend for historical subjects in 1970s French cinema is often remembered in terms of la mode rétro, defined by an obsessional fixation on the Occupation, this article examines films that revisit two polarizing scandals during the explosive final years of the Third Republic. Alain Resnais's Stavisky (1974) recounts the mysterious death of a swindler that triggered a political crisis, leading to the violent street protests of February 6, 1934; Claude Chabrol's Violette Nozière (1978) dramatizes a famous case of parricide in 1933 that became a national obsession, pitting adherents of conservative bourgeois values against opponents of tradition and patriarchy. Rather than investigate the “myth” of resistance under Vichy, these films explore the fault lines of the bitter divide between Right and Left, recasting the prewar narrative through the prism of the 1970s to interrogate the legacies of fascism and the political stakes of interpreting history.","PeriodicalId":45311,"journal":{"name":"FRENCH HISTORICAL STUDIES","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"FRENCH HISTORICAL STUDIES","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1215/00161071-10350089","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"HISTORY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
While the trend for historical subjects in 1970s French cinema is often remembered in terms of la mode rétro, defined by an obsessional fixation on the Occupation, this article examines films that revisit two polarizing scandals during the explosive final years of the Third Republic. Alain Resnais's Stavisky (1974) recounts the mysterious death of a swindler that triggered a political crisis, leading to the violent street protests of February 6, 1934; Claude Chabrol's Violette Nozière (1978) dramatizes a famous case of parricide in 1933 that became a national obsession, pitting adherents of conservative bourgeois values against opponents of tradition and patriarchy. Rather than investigate the “myth” of resistance under Vichy, these films explore the fault lines of the bitter divide between Right and Left, recasting the prewar narrative through the prism of the 1970s to interrogate the legacies of fascism and the political stakes of interpreting history.
期刊介绍:
French Historical Studies, the leading journal on the history of France, publishes articles, commentaries, and research notes on all periods of French history from the Middle Ages to the present. The journal’s diverse format includes forums, review essays, special issues, and articles in French, as well as bilingual abstracts of the articles in each issue. Also featured are bibliographies of recent articles, dissertations and books in French history, and announcements of fellowships, prizes, and conferences of interest to French historians.