Rogues, Romance, and Exoticism in French Cinema of the 1930s

Colleen Kennedy-Karpat received her PhD in French from Rutgers University and currently teaches film studies at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey.

• CONTENTSAcknowledgmentsExoticism in 1930s France: The Colonial and BeyondPART ONE: Men Outside the MainstreamChapter 1: Jean Gabin, le cafard, and Western SolidarityLa Bandera (1935): Cultural Cohesion and Colonial MercenariesPépé le Moko (1937) and the Multiethnic ExoticLe Messager (1937): Failure to AdaptChapter 2: Assimilation Anxiety and Rogue ColonsMen Who Stayed Too LongEl Guelmouna, marchand de sable (1931): Rivalry (and Russians) in Rural AlgeriaAmok (1934): Cultural Readmission at All CostsL’Esclave blanc (1936): Segregationist ParablePART TWO: Romancing the ExoticChapter 3: Tragedy and Triumph for Interracial LoveCaïn, aventure des mers exotiques (1930) and Baroud (1932): Lasting Love in the ColoniesLe Simoun (1933) and Yamilé sous les cèdres (1939): Triumph, Tragedy, ResponsibilityWomen’s Agency and Exoticist RomanceChapter 4: Métissage and Cultural RepatriationLa Dame de Malacca (1937): European Frog, Exotic Prince(Re)claiming French Identity in La Maison du Maltais (1938)L’Esclave blanche (1939): A Westerner in the HaremRedefining Exoticist RomancePART THREE: France Imagines the Far EastChapter 5: Shanghai Fantasies and the Geishas of JoinvilleMollenard (1938) and Le Drame de Shanghaï (1938): Exiled in (and from) the EastYoshiwara (1936) and La Bataille (1934): Lovers and Fighters in the Land of the Rising SunChapter 6: Sessue Hayakawa’s French Resurrection, 1936-1939Forfaiture (1937): A Legend Revised, a Legacy RebornPatrouille blanche (1939/1942): Bringing the Other Back Home Macao, l’enfer du jeu (1939/1942): The Exotic FatherExoticism in TransitionL’Homme du Niger (1940): Patriotism and Paternalism in AfricaMalaria (1943): Imperial StasisDescendants of Interwar Exoticism from Decolonization to the New CenturyAnnotated FilmographyBibliographyIndex

Scholars of classical French cinema will know that a great deal has been written about ‘colonial’ cinema, with attention often returning to a relatively few well-known films, typically set in North Africa, that come to stand in for the broader corpus. At the same time, it is often assumed that the same cinema is a prolongation of the broader colonial project and somehow delivers (or betrays) a propagandist message. Yet popular cinema is a more complex object than this, and ‘colonial’ film is a research object with an illusory coherence. Seeking to develop a more adequate approach, Colleen Kennedy-Karpat broadens the object of study to include exoticism more generally and moves well outside the familiar corpus of films to discuss neglected works and less studied performers. She convincingly demonstrates that, while a colonial setting may indeed place limits on what a film can say or show, ‘colonial’ cinema also shares features with the exotic and, to that extent, needs studying in terms of the pleasures it offers rather than its uneven propaganda value. . . .[T]he book is welcome for its willingness to open up new ground and challenge dubious critical orthodoxies.