Youth has been represented on screen for decades and has informed many directors’ visual, narrative and social perspectives, but there has not been a body of work addressing the richness and complexity of this topic in a French and Francophone context. This volume offers new insights into the works of emerging and well-established directors alike, who all chose to place youth at the heart of their narrative and aesthetic concerns.

Showing how the topic of ‘youth’ has inspired filmmakers to explore and reinvent common tropes associated with young people, the book also addresses how the representation of youth can be used to mirror the tensions – political, social, religious, economic or cultural – that agitate a society at a given time in its history.

Romain Chareyron's profile page

Gilles Viennot's profile page

Romain Chareyron is Assistant Professor of French in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. Before coming to Saskatoon, he held teaching positions at the University of Kansas and Washington State University. Romain’s areas of study include: the representation of gender and sexuality in contemporary French cinema; the reworking of the genres of horror and pornography; the connections between auteur cinema and societal issues, such as immigration, racism and poverty.

Gilles Viennot is Assistant Professor of French in the Department of World Languages, Literatures & Cultures at the University of Arkansas. His areas of study include: contemporary French literature (with an emphasis on Michel Houellebecq); the connections between neoliberalism, technology and family; as well as cinema and TV shows.