This book examines the theoretical affiliations between the most notable proponent of literary realism, Honoré de Balzac, and two understated but key representatives of the French New Wave, Éric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette. It argues that their film criticism, which gradually led to the establishment of a common aesthetic vision of cinema (the politique des auteurs), owes more to Balzac and the nineteenth-century novel than to any intellectual trend of the immediate post-war period. By considering the films of Rohmer and Rivette as an extension of their writings (essays, film reviews, scriptwriting, novels and interviews), this volume analyses the changing and sometimes opposed ways in which they applied Balzacian principles and themes to their cinematic practice. Essentially, it understands the exchange between art forms, past traditions and contemporaneous currents as the overlooked yet common thread that links these three authors, through their own re-appropriations of classical and romantic aesthetics in their explorations of modern French society. In doing so, this study provides further nuance to the conservative versus progressist rupture that is generally assumed between the two directors, and offers an innovative reading of The Human Comedy in the light of post-war ideas on authorship, film adaptation, classicism and modernism.

Treads new ground as the only single-authored book to pair Rohmer with Rivette with the purpose of exploring their commitments to Balzac Challenges and revises common assumptions on the French New Wave's approach to tradition and innovation by exploring the rich and multi-faceted legacy of The Human Comedy Boosts our knowledge of Rohmer and Rivette's film criticism by making overlooked articles known to Anglophone readers through exclusive French to English translations Introduces some of Balzac's most notable novels to Anglophone readers, cinephiles and Francophiles in an original and interdisciplinary fashion

Autorentext

Dr Zahra Tavassoli Zea is an independent researcher. She specialises in the nineteenth-century literary and artistic legacies in post-war French cinema.

Inhalt

1. Introduction: Balzac and the Nouvelle Vague.- 2. Rohmer: Reader and Imitator of Balzac.- 3. Poetry and Reality of the Historical Image.- 4. Balzac and Rivette: Continuity and Deflection.- 5. Modern Mythographer.- 6. Conclusion: Balzac's Multifaceted Legacy.