Between Tradition and Innovation : French Crime Films in the 2000s
Résumé
Since the beginning of the 2000s, the revitalization of the french crime film is embodied in three major trends: the rise of the American-style thriller, which appeared in the wake of The Crimson Rivers (Mathieu Kassovitz, 2000); the revival of “old-style” film noir, brought back to life by 36th Precinct (Olivier Marchal, 2004); and the flourishing of the social crime film, which became popular after the release of The Ax (Costa-Gavras, 2005). The aim of this chapter is to provide a perspective on these tendencies, and to analyze the different ways in which they reconfigure a traditional (masculine) genre. Given the convergence of this temptation to imitate Hollywood, nostalgia for bygone cinematic forms, sociopolitical preoccupations, and anxiety about the role of men in postindustrial society, what do these “new crime films” of the 2000s reveal about the evolution of the cinematic landscape, masculine mindsets, and the state of affairs?