Introduction

A century of French film-making has provided us with a unique perspective on a range of aspects of French culture: from the earliest recordings of the Belle Epoque period, to the twenty-first century appetite for fairytales like Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulin (Amelie, Jeunet, 2001), the cinema has revealed, like no other medium, the myriad moments of a national life lived in modern times. People, places, events, ideas: as all have passed in front of the lens, so they have left behind them not only a wealth of creative products that speak to us of the country, its citizens and their artistic energies, but equally a record of patterns of cultural practice and production that reflect the wider apparatus and structures of national life. This would be true in any culture, but as the birthplace of cinema, the midwife of much global debate and theory about film practice, and the school yard of many of the world's most significant players, France provides a rare insight into how cinema functions as the locus of art, industry and intellectual interest, and thus as a significant indicator of questions of national identity.