Modern European Cinema and Love

Book excerpt: Modern European cinema and love examines nine European directors working from the 1950s onwards whose films contain stories about and reflections on romantic love and marriage. The directors are Ingmar Bergman, Alain Resnais, Michelangelo Antonioni, Agnès Varda, François Truffaut, Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard and Eric Rohmer. There is also an opening chapter on Jean Renoir. The book approaches questions of love and marriage from a philosophical perspective, applying the ideas of authors such as Stanley Cavell, Leo Bersani, Luce Irigaray and Alain Badiou, while also tracing key concepts from Freudian psychoanalysis. Each of the filmmakers discussed engages deeply with notions of modern love and marriage, often in positive ways, but also in ways that question the institutions of love, marriage and the 'couple'.