French Sports Films: Visions of Masculinity

This book will fill significant gaps within both studies of French cinema and the study of sports films in general. Despite many sports films having been produced in France over the years, and especially in recent decades, they have been largely ignored within discussions of contemporary French cinema. Within works about sports films with an international focus,1 their existence has at times been acknowledged but their defining characteristics are yet to be analysed in depth.

This book will be one of the first to treat French sports films as a category in their own right and examine the extent to which they possess a specificity that differentiates them from Hollywood sports films and sports films produced in other countries. It will explore the evolution of depictions of masculinity within French sports films, arguing that recent decades have seen a shift away from focusing on macho males towards a greater exploration of male vulnerability. This will evolve assessing the extent to which the main films analysed exhibit trends identified in contemporary works that challenge conventional approaches to concepts such as masculinity and virility (e.g. Jean-Jacques Courtine ed. Histoire de la Virilité: la virilité en crise? (Paris: Seuil, 2011); Olivia Gazali Le Mythe de la virilité: un piège pour les deux sexes (Paris: Robert Laffont, 2017); Ivan Jablonka Des Hommes justes: du patriarcat aux nouvelles masculinités (Paris: Seuil, 2019). The vulnerability this book will examine will go well beyond uncertainties surrounding the outcome of sporting contests and relate to wider issues such as what it means to be a man, partner, or father/son. The book will also by demonstrate that this increasingly nuanced focus on masculinity within French sports films has been accompanied by the production of more works that focus on female athletes. However, it will argue that some of these films provide a largely superficial engagement with issues concerning women’s participation in sport. In concluding, this book will argue that French sports films will need to show continued and greater engagement with issues such as gender, ethnicity and class if they are to become truly progressive.