Film and Community in Britain and France: From La Règle Du Jeu to Room at the Top

Relations between France and Britain have always been uneasy and ambivalent. But in cinema the Second World War changed all that for a time. Although the two countries' wartime fortunes differed, post-war both were busy reintegrating returning servicemen and prisoners of war and accommodating the changed aspirations of women. Margaret Butler examines these subjects and more in her comparative study of the cinemas of Britain and France during and after the war. Using the concept of community, she shows how cinema dealt with ideas of belonging and alienation, inclusion and exclusion, unity and division. She also draws on contemporary debates and a perceptive reading of key films, to reveal afresh the meaning and appeal of such French classics as "Le Corbeau" and "Les Enfants du Paradis" and notable British productions such as "Waterloo Road" and "Passport to Pimlico."