Et l'homme-- crea le film : using film to gauge French and American cultural exchange : an honors thesis (HONRS 499)

Film can be an insightful means through which one can try to understand the dynamic of a nation or culture. By observing and analyzing the films that are made in any country, one can attempt to see why the themes and topics treated are important to that people, and what that in turn tells us about the culture in general. Also, the specific films that each country chooses to export to other countries and how they advertise them abroad can show the biases, stereotypes, and conceptions of the one nation in regards to the other. In this paper, I use the idea that film can reveal much about a nation in order to examine the relationship between the United States of America and France, two countries in which the film industry is a vital part of the country's culture, economy, and politics. The French film industry is by far the largest and most active in Europe, and the United States of America is the second largest film-producing nation in the world. Therefore, by exploring the cultural, economic, and political importance and implications of film in France and the United States, I will seek to illuminate the similarities and differences of the American and French film industries and what these similarities and differences may tell us about the cultures themselves and how the French and American people view each other's cultures.Honors CollegeThesis (B.?.