James Rowlins - BIMM Institute
About
Press
Papers
We're Hiring!
James Rowlins
BIMM Institute
Screen and Film School Brighton
Faculty Member
Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)
Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Faculty Member
Followers
487
Following
78
Co-author
Public Views
My dissertation develops a comprehensive study of the influence exerted by Hollywood “genre” cinema, in particular the B-series film noir, on the French New Wave. Initially, I ask if this relationship is not the principle identifying criterion of New Wave cinema. It is, after all, a matter of record that Hollywood’s cheaply-made B-movies were championed by the critics of Cahiers du cinéma as permitting authorial self-expression and as encouraging cinematic innovation and evolution. Genre cinema subsequently remained a preoccupation for the New Wave auteurs, who made no fewer than fifty gangster and crime films between 1958 and 1965, including many of the New Wave’s most iconic films.
I therefore embark on a comparative study that considers in great detail the New Wave’s reprisal and adaptation of the film noir format, with my analyses focused not only on character and plot conventions, but also on the tropes, aesthetics and filmmaking production techniques common to both cinemas. I show how the two cinemas cross-pollinate, especially given that the French polar itself exerted influence on Hollywood film noir and that French critics were among the first to identify the new tendency towards making film noir in postwar Hollywood. I also draw a number of important conclusions. Primarily, I show that while the New Wave borrows extensively from Hollywood aesthetics, its manipulation and subversion of American film noir conventions are also at the very heart of the politique des auteurs. This politique is characterized by a profound dissatisfaction with their era, the Americanization of French society, France’s involvement in Algeria, and a reticence about the impending sexual liberation movement.
I contextualize my project within the current debate in film and French studies regarding the legacy of the New Wave, particularly in light of a tendency to cast doubt on the movement’s involvement with “the political,” as well as to dispute the New Wave’s status as a defining moment in French cinema.
Supervisors:
Dr. Karen Pinkus
less
Related Authors
Tina M Bastajian
Independent Researcher
Maria Poulaki
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Cinéma&Cie. International Film Studies Journal
Marco Dalla Gassa
Università Ca' Foscari Venezia
Gillian Rose
University of Oxford
Jelena Martinovic
University College London
Olga Kataeva
Université Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle
Ian Christie
Birkbeck College, University of London
Benjamin Léon
Université Rennes 2
Guilherme da Silva Machado
University of Lausanne
Interests
View All (10)
Uploads
all
Books
Papers
Book Reviews
Books by James Rowlins
IAFOR Journal of Media, Communication & Film - Volume 3, Issue 1
by
James Rowlins
and
Celia Lam
This third issue of the IAFOR Journal of Media, Communication & Film has a truly international sc...
more
This third issue of the IAFOR Journal of Media, Communication & Film has a truly international scope, featuring contributions from authors of eight different nationalities. The ambition was to create, to adapt Benedict Anderson’s term, an “imagined community” of international scholars, brought together, virtually, by the impulse to deconstruct the texts and images that shape our understanding of the modern world. The notion of community is, moreover, the overarching theme of this issue’s articl
IAFOR Journal of Media, Communication & Film - Volume 1, Issue 2
by
James Rowlins
and
Celia Lam
This issue’s theme is documentary in the digital age. A trilogy of articles develop a strong sub-...
more
This issue’s theme is documentary in the digital age. A trilogy of articles develop a strong sub-theme, namely the treatment of women and the subaltern on the Indian subcontinent. Coupled with excellent writings on some contemporary documentaries are probing interviews with talented young filmmakers.
IAFOR Journal of Media, Communication & Film - Volume I, Issue 1
Deadly Deviations, Subversive Cinema: The Influence of Hollywood Film Noir on the French New Wave (Ph.D Dissertation)
This dissertation develops a comprehensive study of the influence exerted by Hollywood “genre” ci...
more
This dissertation develops a comprehensive study of the influence exerted by Hollywood “genre” cinema, in particular the B-series film noir, on the French New Wave. Initially, I ask if this relationship is not the principle identifying criterion of New Wave cinema. It is, after all, a matter of record that Hollywood’s cheaply-made B-movies were championed by the critics of Cahiers du cinéma as permitting authorial self-expression and as encouraging cinematic innovation and evolution. Genre cinema subsequently remained a preoccupation for the New Wave auteurs, who made no fewer than fifty gangster and crime films between 1958 and 1965, including many of the New Wave’s most iconic films.
I therefore embark on a comparative study that considers in great detail the New Wave’s reprisal and adaptation of the film noir format, with my analyses focused not only on character and plot conventions, but also on the tropes, aesthetics and filmmaking production techniques common to both cinemas. I show how the two cinemas cross-pollinate, especially given that the French polar itself exerted influence on Hollywood film noir and that French critics were among the first to identify the new tendency towards making film noir in postwar Hollywood. I also draw a number of important conclusions. Primarily, I show that while the New Wave borrows extensively from Hollywood aesthetics, its manipulation and subversion of American film noir conventions are also at the very heart of the politique des auteurs. This politique is characterized by a profound dissatisfaction with their era, the Americanization of French society, France’s involvement in Algeria, and a reticence about the impending sexual liberation movement.
I contextualize my project within the current debate in film and French studies regarding the legacy of the New Wave, particularly in light of a tendency to cast doubt on the movement’s involvement with “the political,” as well as to dispute the New Wave’s status as a defining moment in French cinema.
format_quote
Fifty gangster and crime films were directed by New Wave filmmakers between 1958 and 1965, showcasing genre preference.
format_quote
Papers by James Rowlins
Cinema as Translucent Reality: The Actuality Aesthetic in the French New Wave
Post-Scriptum
, 2011
This article explores the New Wave's divergence from Bazinian principles of cinematic realism. Wh...
more
This article explores the New Wave's divergence from Bazinian principles of cinematic realism. While Bazin undoubtedly helped shape the future auteurs' realist ambitions, providing them with a discursive framework for considering questions of cinematic truth, the New Wave filmmakers soon realized the inherent difficulties in Bazin's belief that photography and cinema were tools for achieving phenomenological "truth." They therefore developed intricate strategies for critiquing their own films' truth claim as well as for infusing their films with subjectivity. The resulting "actuality aesthetic" is a showcase for cinema as art's most translucent medium; aspiring to represent life "as it is," but in the process of doing so, manipulating the image and subjectifying reality.
format_quote
New Wave filmmakers confronted the disparity between realism and reality, acknowledging a complex discourse on truth production in their cinema.
format_quote
“Film Scholarship and the 50th Anniversary of the French New Wave.”
The London Film and Media Reader
, 2013
Michel Houellebecq: The Impossibility of Being an Island
format_quote
Critics suggest Houellebecq channels de Sade’s individualism, intertwined with sexual liberation and nihilistic themes across his novels.
format_quote
Chance, Fate, Destiny: Existentialism and French New Wave Cinema
format_quote
Film noir's existential themes profoundly shaped New Wave filmmakers, reflecting their shared concerns of solitude and moral ambiguity.
format_quote
Book Reviews by James Rowlins
Compact Cinematics: The Moving Image in the Age of Bit-Sized Media
Mobile Media & Communication
, 2017
This volume comprises nineteen articles themed around compact cinematics, an original formulation...
more
This volume comprises nineteen articles themed around compact cinematics, an original formulation defined as the "various compact, short, compressed, and miniature (audio)visual artifacts, forms, and practices that circulate in our everyday multimedia environment, across technologies, genres, and disciplines" (p. 2). This extends to all aspects of visual culture in the digital age outside of traditional cinema and includes works made and viewed on smartphones, tablets and laptops in 2D, 3D and VR (virtual reality). The editors' objective in this book is to defend compact cinematics from the perception that is a "derivative or incomplete or less developed form of cinema" (p. 3), and to foreground a "rich body of media-archaeological research" (p. 2) that attests to the contrary. The volume is organised into five parts, with the first dedicated to short films. The second part considers the revolutionary possibilities afforded by digital cinematics, the third reports on the latest technological forms available to "viewsers" (user-viewers), the fourth focuses on mobile cinematics and the last part deals with urban ecologies. The volume is one of the first dedicated to scholarship on the postdigital audiovisual landscape released by a major publisher. Hesselberth and Poulaki's introduction is a robust defence of their inquiry into compact cinematics. A main tenet of their rationale for this book-and this point is often made by scholars-is that contemporary visual culture marks a return to the essence of early cinema; "the cinema of attractions" to use Tom Gunning's phrase. A number of problems arise, however,
or
or
reset password
Need an account?
Click here to sign up
About
Press
Papers
Topics
Academia.edu Journals
work
We're Hiring!
help
Find new research papers in:
Physics
Chemistry
Biology
Health Sciences
Ecology
Earth Sciences
Cognitive Science
Mathematics
Computer Science
Content Policy
Academia ©2026