100 years of European cinema: entertainment or ideology?

Book abstract:

Cinema provides entertainment but it also communicates a set of values, a vision of the world or an ideology. From its beginnings over a century ago, European cinema has dealt in a variety of ways with the tension between these two functions: at the extremes, dictatorial regimes have sweetened the pill of ideology with the sugar of entertainment. Meanwhile, spectators have persisted in seeking out, above all, the pleasure that film can provide.

This book explores the complex relationship between entertainment, ideology and audiences in European film, through studies that range from the Stalinist musicals of the 1930's, to cinematic representations of masculinity under Franco, to recent French films and their Hollywood remakes.

The chapters in the book are grouped in two parts: Part I; 'Ideologies and cinematic pleasure' addresses the relation between cinema and the highly codified ideologies of this century. This part considers films, or indeed whole national cinemas, which were conceived with their ideological function as paramount, and the chapters discuss the ways in which such cinema addressed the problems of holding its audience. Part II; 'Entertainment and its ideologies' concentrates on the mechanisms and functions of entertainment under liberal capitalist regimes which openly prioritise it, and suggests some ways in which such entertainment may have social relevance either by reinforcing or by seeking to influence the dominant values of society.

This is a diverse and entertaining book. It is aimed at students of film, especially French, German, Russian or Spanish, but would also be of interest to readers and academics interested in both the history of European cinema and European culture.

Diana Holmes is Professor of French at the University of Leeds. Alison Smith is Lecturer in Continental European Cinema at the University of Liverpool.