Existentialism and Contemporary Cinema

Jean-Pierre Boulé is Professor of Contemporary French Studies at Nottingham Trent University and the author of a number of books, notably on Sartre, including Sartre médiatique (1992) and Sartre, Self-Formation and Masculinities (2005). He is the co-founder of the U.K. Sartre Society and executive editor of Sartre Studies International. He is coediting with Benedict O’Donohoe, Jean-Paul Sartre: Mind and Body, Word and Deed (2011) and preparing with Ursula Tidd a companion volume, Existentialism and Contemporary Cinema. A Beauvoirian Perspective (2013).

• AcknowledgementsIntroductionJean-Pierre Boulé and Enda McCaffreyPART I: THE CALL TO FREEDOMChapter 1. Peter Weir’s The Truman Show and SartreanFreedomChristopher FalzonChapter 2. Michael Haneke and the Consequences of Radical FreedomKevin L. Stoehr Chapter 3. Naked, Bad Faith and MasculinityMark StantonChapter 4. Pursuits of Transcendence in The Man Who Wasn’t ThereTom MartinChapter 5. Lorna’s Silence: Sartre and the Dardenne BrothersSarah CooperPART II: FILMS OF SITUATIONChapter 6. Being–Lost in TranslationMichelle R. DarnellChapter 7. If I Should Wake Before I Die: Existentialism as a Political Call to Arms in The Crying GameTracey NichollsChapter 8. Crimes of Passion, Freedom and a Clash of Sartrean Moralities in the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old MenEnda McCaffrey Chapter 9. ‘An Act of Confidence in the Freedom of Men’: Jean-Paul Sartre and Ousmane SembenePatrick WilliamsChapter 10. Cédric Klapisch’s The Spanish Apartment and Russian Dolls in Nausea’s MirrorJean-Pierre BouléChapter 11. Baz Luhrmann’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet: The Nauseous Art of AdaptationAlistair RollsNotes on ContributorsIndex

“One of the strengths of the volume overall is the breadth of approaches to and applications of Sartrean thinking, from the personal and political to the atheistic and artistic. There is also a refreshing selection of films under consideration…their edited collection is very welcome evidence in support of the proposition that thinking about Sartre and film together can produce stimulating and insightful film philosophy.”  ·  Journal of Contemporary European Studies“As someone who teaches both French cinema and existentialism courses, I would expect students of existentialism in particular to be enthusiastic about discussing this intersection of familiar concepts and such recent films. The essays are thoughtful, informed and illuminating. While some of the interpretations of the philosophy, and at times of Sartre’s imaginative texts, may be unorthodox, students and scholars will find much here with which to reflect and engage. Collectively, they certainly demonstrate the richness of an existentialist interrogation of meaning and purposefulness of action in the world, and the extent to which contemporary cinema continues to prove fertile material for philosophical enquiry.”  ·  H-France"All of the essays here are fine pieces in their own right, and the collection certainly succeeds in its aim of showing the relevance of Sartre for the study of contemporary cinema. It whets the appetite for a more systematic consideration of what a Sartrean approach to cinema might be"  ·  Modern & Contemporary France“[This volume] will provide a useful tool, in particular for students seeking to learn about Sartre and existentialism but also for students exploring the application of philosophy to the understanding of cinema.”  ·  Douglas Morrey, University of Warwick