The traditionally American genre of the road movie has been explored and
reconfigured in the French context since the later 1960s. Comparative in
its approach, this book studies the inter-relationship between American
and French culture and cinemas, and in the process considers and
challenges histories of the road movie. It combines film history with
film theory methodologies, analysing transformations in social,
political and film-industrial contexts alongside changing perspectives
on the meaning and possibilities of film. At once chronological and
thematic in structure, The French Road Movie provides in each chapter
a comprehensive introduction to key themes emerging from the genre in
the French context - liberty, identity and citizenship, masculinity,
femininity, border-crossing - followed by detailed, innovative and often
revisionist readings of the chosen films. Through these readings the
author justifies the place of the road genre within French cinema
histories and reinvigorates this often neglected and misunderstood area
of study.