JCP 004 \\\ interwar FRANCE

ᴊɪᴍᴍʏ'ꜱ ᴄɪɴᴇᴍᴀ ᴘᴀꜱꜱᴘᴏʀᴛ 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘴. 𝘌𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦- 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦-𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦-𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘵, 𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦-𝘱𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘦𝘳𝘢 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘮𝘢 𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺.

In this special double issue for 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘸𝘢𝘳 𝘍𝘙𝘈𝘕𝘊𝘌, we travel to a glamorous and gloomy decade in the (soon ex-) Republic's history.

Some of these films are lyrical and humanistic, rendering them all the more tragic for the implicit optimism that would drown in the rising tide of Nazism. Similarly, the poetic, absurd, and horny spirit of the Années folles (the Roaring Twenties, en anglais) was squashed over the course of the Depression, but were first frozen in amber by the earlier films in this curation.

In all honesty, this zine is not concerned with the interwar period in its entirety—lasting from 1918 to 1939—but with only that concluding decade. The advent of sound cinema is my premier reason. From Renoir's on-set sync-sound realism to Vigo's gauzy mindscapes, the French made much better use of this major innovation than Hollywood's chatty novelty acts.

My secondary motivation is that in a very real sense, the thirties 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 the interwar period. For the same reason that they did not label the World War they just finished as the First, the people of late-teens, early-twenties Europe believed themselves to be 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵- (not 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳-) war. But one gets the sense, especially when watching their movies, that the thirties was when an incremental dread began creeping over France, and that this was when they started to foresee a Second. It's for this reason that I consider the thirties—beginning with a descent from the tragic naïvety of post-WWI Europe, and then a foreboding backslide towards the nadir of human history—to represent the era in its truest sense, because those who lived between the two wars finally 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘸 they were living between two wars.

Certainly a few of these films are tinged with that sense of doom, however I intentionally avoided those that could be described as "prescient"—in other words, there are no 𝘙𝘶𝘭𝘦𝘴—and additionally abstained from the male, sentimentalized visions of war that were endemic to the era. I'd hate to reduce these marvelous works of art to the function of armageddon soothsaying. Rather, consider approaching these movies as valuable time capsules from a world to which there would be no return.

Of this zine's 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘯 (!) films are the names of a few familiar filmmakers:
‣ Jean RENOIR
‣ Jean VIGO
‣ Jean COCTEAU
‣ René CLAIR
‣ Julien DUVIVIER

…Not all of whom are directors:
‣ Marcel PAGNOL, 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵
‣ Antoine de SAINT-EXUPÉRY, 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳
‣ Coco CHANEL, 𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘮𝘦

2¾" × 4", b&w or color cover, b&w pages

𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵, 𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦𝘴, 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝙋𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙂𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙧𝙮