Contemporary French Civilization

Cinéma-monde: de-orbiting Maghrebi cinema

Contemporary French Civilization (2016), 41, (3-4), 461–475.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3828/cfc.2016.31
Language
English
Pages
15

Abstract

This article proposes to ask and possibly start to answer a series of questions: What on earth is cinéma-monde? How useful is it as a descriptor for the study of postcolonial cinemas in former French colonies? How different is it from cinémas du monde, the French translation for “World Cinema”? The term cinéma-monde was first coined by two French political scientists, Josepha Laroche and Alexandre Bohas, to describe the context against which the French encrypted TV channel Canal + developed. Their stark exposé on the film production of the world at the hands of a happy few is sobering, as they dissect the very notion of cinéma-monde under the lens of the economy of globalization and late capitalism. In 2012, the term pops up again, invoked this time by francophone specialist Bill Marshall in his article “Cinéma-monde? Towards a concept of Francophone Cinema.” Here it appears as an ambiguous appellation to designate “francophone cinema” that Marshall examines closely yet eventually puts aside. The difference between the two is clear: Laroche and Bohas use it to decry Hollywood’s hegemony in global cinema; Marshall sees it as an unsatisfactory adaptation of the concept of littérature-monde to screen studies. However, holding these contradictory meanings of cinéma-monde together can, paradoxically, lead to a clearer view of the relationships between transnational cinema in, say, the Maghreb, and the monopolies of the North. My contention is that the term is worth examining and perhaps even worth a rescue operation: what if it could help us understand a filmic production that is a) no longer francophone, strictly speaking; b) post-postcolonial; c) de-centered? My hermeneutical hope is to see what a redefined concept could bring to the study of a cinema formerly known as “francophone” through the case study of Maghrebi film.

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Martin, Florence