Les instants de recueillement et de souvenir: la Deuxieme Guerre mondiale et le cinema Francais de 1995 a nos jours

Abstract

This thesis is an examination of the influence of cultural representations of history in shaping a nation’s memory, identity and contemporary views about its global responsibilities. Focusing on film, a pillar of French culture, the impact of the Occupation of the Second World War will be explored through the analysis of particular themes raised in both President Jacques Chirac’s speech of July 1995 (a speech in which he apologised for the French government’s role in the Holocaust) and a range of French films made between 1995 and 2015 thus exploring contemporary manifestations of both French history and culture. The thesis will discuss the ways in which history and film impact upon culture. It will contribute to the current literature in that it discusses film as an act of remembrance and a reflection of both the society it is attempting to represent and the society that will constitute its audience. The aim of this thesis is to explore the main themes present in both socio-political acts of remembrance and contemporary cinematic representations of the Second World War which are cultural acts of commemoration. This work’s central argument is that the July 1995 speech of President Jacques Chirac, in which he accepted French responsibility for the Vichy government’s active role in the execution of the Holocaust during WWII, marked the beginning of a new generation influencing the treatment and retelling of the Nazi Occupation of France from 1940 to 1944. This new generation, whose conception coincides with the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st, is characterised by a pressure to recognise and represent as many of the various identity groups present during the historical period and also by its acknowledgement of the chronological distance between contemporary society and the historical events it continues to commemorate.