Alex Hughes. Encyclopedia of Contemporary French Culture

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

378

Mitterrand was obliged to appoint the neo-

Gaullist Jacques Chirac as prime minister and

embark on the first cohabitation of the Fifth

Republic. This form of executive power shar-

ing effectively stripped him of control of the

domestic policy agenda and confined his initia-

tives to the field of foreign policy. However, his

judicious handling of cohabitation obviated a

constitutional crisis and earned him the grati-

tude of the public.

In the 1988 presidential election Mitterrand

could convincingly present himself as a states-

man able to unite the nation and comfortably

beat the apparently volatile and divisive

Chirac. In contrast to the ideological turbu-

lence which had marked his first term,

Mitterrand’s 1988 campaign promised recon-

ciliation. His priorities would be to pursue

European economic integration and reduce

social inequality.

In the 1988–93 period, the PS enjoyed a

relative majority and Mitterrand was again

able to appoint Socialist prime ministers. De-

spite this, the functioning of the executive con-

tinued to bear some relation to cohabitation,

in that prime ministers defined the orientation

of domestic policy, albeit at the cost of occa-

sional presidential obstruction and criticism

(particularly in the case of Rocard). There was

also a distinct cooling of relations between the

PS and Mitterrand, whose presidential style

became increasingly regal. In 1991 he dis-

missed the still-popular Rocard (whom he per-

sonally disliked) and appointed France’s first

ever woman prime minister, Édith Cresson,

only to have to replace her with the more re-

assuring Bérégovoy in 1992.

Mitterrand preferred, however, to devote

his attention to foreign and European affairs.

He showed himself to be more Atlanticist than

his predecessors, staunchly defending the in-

stallation of US cruise missiles in Europe in

the early 1980s. He engaged French troops

under allied (American) command in the Gulf

war in 1991 and co-operated with NATO in

Bosnia in 1994. In African policy, his record

is questionable, but he himself considered that

French policy encouraged the development of

democratic practices there (Adler 1995). He

was one of the architects of the 1985 Single

European Act and of the Maastricht Treaty,

whose ratification he put to a referendum in

France in 1992.

More than any of his predecessors,

Mitterrand left his mark on the cultural and

architectural landscape of Paris, thanks to the

Grand Louvre, the Arche de la Défense (con-

structed for the Bicentenary celebrations of the

1789 Revolution), the Opéra de la Bastille and

the grandiose and hyper-modern Bibliothèque

Nationale de France.

The PS’s catastrophic defeat in the 1993

elections forced Mitterrand into a second co-

habitation, this time with Balladur as premier.

In this final period of his presidency, his ex-

ecutive initiatives were few: one can cite

French humanitarian intervention in Rwanda

in 1994. In the grip of terminal illness, he was

dogged by fresh allegations concerning his

ideological affiliations in the prewar and Vi-

chy periods. Yet he refused to respond clearly

to his detractors and allowed the existence of

a 20-year-old daughter by a mistress to be-

come public knowledge, as if he wanted to lay

himself bare to the public.

This perhaps provides a key to understand-

ing the man and his career. Possessed of a great

belief in his own destiny and legitimacy, he

rarely regretted his actions and tended to at-

tribute whatever negative outcomes might be

perceived in them as the failure of others to

comprehend the rightness of his purpose, as if

they did not see the big picture.

Despite his taste for provocation and his

readiness to do combat, Mitterrand’s mode of

leadership was, in essence, reactive. Like de

Gaulle, he was a great legitimator of the (vir-

tually) inevitable and contributed to reconcil-

ing France with some of the imperatives of the

age (decentralization, a more liberal economy,

European integration), while at the same time

representing aspects of a traditional France,

embodied in its literature and (often provin-

cial) culture.

LAURENCE BELL

See also: architecture under Mitterrand; Ca-

tholicism and Protestantism; decolonization;

Mitterrand, François

379

education, the state and the church; foreign

policy; nationalization and privatization; par-

ties and movements; radio (private/free)

Further reading

Adler, L. (1995) L’Année des adieux, Paris:

Flammarion (on his final year).

Clark, A. (1986) Anthologie Mitterrand, Lon-

don: Methuen (a concise biography, fol-

lowed by a good selection of extracts from

Mitterrand’s key writings).

Cole, A. (1994) François Mitterrand: A Study in

Political Leadership, London: Routledge (cov-

ers the political context, rather than the man).

Giesbert, F.-O. (1996) François Mitterrand:

une vie, Paris: Éditions du Seuil (a well-in-

formed third biography of Mitterrand by a

leading figure in the press; written in a jour-

nalistic style).

Mnouchkine, Ariane

b. 1934, Boulogne-sur-Seine

Director

Ariane Mnouchkine is perhaps the most influ-

ential director in France today, noted for her

willingness to take risks, to experiment and to

combine different theatrical traditions in order

to search for a relevant, contemporary voice.

Since her student days, she has worked with

the theatre company she founded in 1964 (and

now directs), the now internationally re-

nowned Théâtre du Soleil, which since 1970

has been based at the Cartoucherie, Vincennes.

In terms of style, she is recognized for adopt-

ing a non-authoritarian stance: her view of the

director’s role is to co-ordinate the thoughts

and ideas of her company into a coherent

form, rather than forcing them to conform to

her own prescribed vision. During the last

three decades she has aimed to explore the role

of the actor and his or her relationship to the

audience, retaining a political message in her

productions. A confirmed left-winger, she di-

rects the Théâtre du Soleil along strictly demo-

cratic lines. In the 1970s, the company was

particularly noted for collective creations, such

as the renowned 1789 (filmed by Mnouchkine

in 1974), for their challenging new approach

to performance, and for their staging and in-

novative methods of relating historical fact.

After other successful collective creation

projects, including 2793 and L’Age d’or (The

Golden Age) between 1972 and 1975,

Mnouchkine turned to film for her new chal-

lenge, making Molière, la vie d’un honnête

homme (Molière, the Life of an Honest Man)

between 1976 and 1977 with a cast from the

Théâtre du Soleil, using many of the princi-

ples acquired in previous stage productions.

She went on to adapt Thomas Mann’s

Mephisto in 1979, before returning to text-

based productions. Inspired by her knowledge

of Eastern theatre, Mnouchkine and the Soleil

embarked upon a series of Shakespeare plays

which gained her renewed renown for her

radical, fresh approach, borrowing from In-

dian and Japanese performance traditions. She

experimented further, between 1990 and

1993, with a series of plays based on Greek

tragedies called Les Atrides, again exploring

existing theatre traditions in a search for a way

of conveying a contemporary political mes-

sage. Mnouchkine’s recent work has also at-

tempted to confront twentieth-century con-

cerns, especially in her collaboration with

Hélène Cixous. Her epic plays, sometimes as

much as nine hours long, deal with issues as

varied as: the legacy of colonialism in Cam-

bodia, as in 1985’s L’Histoire terrible mais

inachevée de Norodom Sihanouk roi du

Cambodge (The Terrible but Unfinished Story

of Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia);

the partitioning of India in L’Indiade (1987);

and French government corruption in La Ville

parjure (Treacherous City), in 1994, into

which she incorporates valuable lessons

learned from the Soleil’s Greek cycle. In 1995,

she directed a memorable production of

Tartuffe, giving Molière’s classic contempo-

rary relevance by setting it in the troubled Al-

geria of the 1990s.

Mnouchkine, Ariane

380

ANNIE SPARKS

Further reading

Kiernander, A. (1995) Ariane Mnouchkine and

the Théâtre du Soleil, Cambridge: Cam-

bridge University Press (essential reading).

Modiano, Patrick

b. 1947, Boulogne-sur-Seine

Writer

Modiano’s early work—such as La Place de

l’étoile (1968) and Les Boulevards de ceinture

(The Ring Road) (1972)—was among the first

to deal graphically with the period of the Oc-

cupation, before it became virtually de rigueur

to do so. His screenplay for Malle’s Lacombe

Lucien (1973) brought this theme to an even

wider audience. His more recent work, such

as Une jeunesse (Youth) (1981) or Un cirque

passe (A Passing Circus) (1992), may have a

more contemporary setting, but is unceasingly

worked and reworked by memories of the past.

KEITH READER

Mollet, Guy

b. 1905, Flers, Normandy;

d. 1975, Paris

Politician

As leader of the Parti Socialiste-SFIO between

1946 and 1969, Mollet presided over the de-

cline of a party caught between its unrevised

revolutionary doctrine and its reformist prac-

tice. As prime minister in 1956 he stepped up

the repression of the independence movement

in French Algeria. In the same year he joined

with the British to organize the ill-fated Suez

expedition. He facilitated de Gaulle’s return

to power in the wake of the May 1958 crisis,

but in the 1960s took his party into electoral

agreements with the Communists in order to

combat the Gaullists. His absolute loyalty to

the traditions of his own party tended to block

any significant renewal of the Left.

LAURENCE BELL

See also: Algerian war; parties and movements

Further reading

Quilliot, R. (1972) La SFIO et l’exercice du

pouvoir, Paris: Fayard (an insider’s account

of the SFIO in the period 1944–58).

Monde, Le

Newspaper

An opinion-forming daily of international re-

pute, Le Monde is the most comprehensive

French newspaper, providing in-depth analy-

sis of national news and unparalleled interna-

tional coverage. An evening paper, it is an in-

dispensable, authoritative source of informa-

tion for the ruling classes, intellectuals and

highly educated sections of the population,

and can be relied upon to publish official re-

ports from organizations otherwise neglected

by the press.

Austere in appearance, with a dense layout

and rare photographs, its tone is sober, re-

strained, even dry, and its style polished, el-

evated and analytical. Committed to a noble

conception of journalism, Le Monde aspires

to balanced, impartial reporting, and does not

hesitate to criticize. While independent of po-

litical parties, it is the forum for much politi-

cal debate. It is socially progressive and left of

centre, demonstrating a commitment to jus-

tice and human rights.

The newspaper was founded by Hubert

Beuve-Méry on 18 December 1944 at the

Modiano, Patrick

381

instigation of General de Gaulle, who felt

France should have a newspaper of reference

to replace Le Temps after the war. Beuve-Méry

remained associated with the newspaper until

his death in 1989. He wrote his editorials un-

der the pseudonym ‘Sirius’, and Le Monde’s

reputation for ironic understatement and cul-

tivation of an allusive, indirect style is gener-

ally attributed to his influence.

Following an internal crisis in 1951, Le

Monde adopted a revolutionary legal frame-

work, giving journalists an important role in

decision-making. Priding itself on its financial

and political independence, it organized its

share ownership to give a stake to founder

members, managers, journalists and employ-

ees, leaving only a minor shareholding avail-

able to external investors. In 1982, prolonged

squabbling over who should succeed Jacques

Fauvet as director demonstrated the drawbacks

of this internal democracy. New appointee

André Laurens was quickly replaced by André

Fontaine in 1985, for the paper was in crisis,

with accumulating deficits and falling reader-

ship. Liberation had won over younger read-

ers, and Le Figaro was in the ascendant. Dras-

tic measures were introduced: reductions in

staff and salaries, the sale of the famous of-

fices in the rue des Italiens, and an injection of

capital from the newly founded readers’ asso-

ciation. The traditional presentation of the

paper was revamped, new supplements intro-

duced, and more importance attached to the

investigative role (well demonstrated by Edwy

Plenel’s reporting of the Rainbow Warrior af-

fair). Fontaine succeeded in rejuvenating the

paper and reversing the decline, but costly in-

vestment in new printing facilities at Ivry in

1989 brought further financial problems.

Jacques Lesourne, appointed director in 1991,

presided over increasing difficulties, and was

replaced in 1994 by Jean-Marie Colombani,

who undertook further innovation, including

the introduction of André Laurens as media-

tor responsible for improving communications

between readers and the editorial team.

Through the main newspaper and associ-

ated publications—such as Le Monde diplo-

matique, Le Monde de l’éducation, Le Monde

des débuts, Le Monde: dossiers et docu-

ments—the title exerts considerable influence.

None the less, in 1995 it was only the fourth

French daily in terms of circulation, selling

379, 089 copies on average.

PAM MOORES

See also: song/chanson

Montparnasse Tower

A fifty-six-storey office tower, 210 m high, the

Tour Maine-Montparnasse was built as part

of a development project begun in 1958 which

replaced the old railway stations of Maine and

Montparnasse by a single new station. The

tower formed the focal point of a new centre

Montparnasse Tower

382

for business and commercial activity and was

intended as a triumphal gesture to symbolize

the embracing of modernism by the state as

represented by the capital city of Paris. Inau-

gurated in 1973, it had taken four years to

build, with a combination of both public and

private investment. Opposition to the tower

on aesthetic grounds was not openly expressed

until it was near completion.

SUSAN COLLARD

Further reading

Kofman, M. (1995) Edgar Morin, London,

Chicago: Pluto Press (comprehensive

monograph).

motor sport

Motor sport in France is governed by the

Fédération Française du Sport Automobile

(French Motor Sports Federation) and the

sport divides into Formula 1 (and, at a lower

level, Formula 3,000 and Formula 3), rally-

ing and endurance races. France stages a

Grand Prix as part of the world Formula 1

championships and this attracts huge crowds,

but the annual Le Mans twenty-four-hour

race has seen a decline in its popularity.

Renault engines have been most successful in

Formula 1 races, as have French drivers such

as Jacques Lafitte and France’s first Formula

1 champion, Alain Prost. France’s best-

known rally, the Paris-Dakar (it involves

cars, lorries and motorbikes) attracted much

controversy. Motorcycle racing and moto-

cross have seen a resurgence in popularity

since the late 1960s.

IAN PICKUP

See also: song/chanson

Mouloudji, Marcel

384

Moustaki, Georges

b. 1934, Alexandria, Egypt

Singer-songwriter,

real name Joseph Mustacchi

Having studied at the Lycée Français (French

secondary school) in Alexandria, Moustaki

went to Paris in 1951. The turning point in

his career was his meeting in 1957 with Édith

Piaf, for whom he wrote Milord. He later

wrote for Serge Reggiani—Sarah and Ma

liberté (My Freedom), for instance—before

becoming a highly successful performer in his

own right: Joseph and Le Métèque (The Wog),

for example. His songs reveal a variety of

musical influences, ranging from Oriental to

South American.

IAN PICKUP

See also: song/chanson

multinational companies

A multinational company is one which owns

and/or controls resources engaged in produc-

tion outside the country in which it is based.

Companies need to reach a certain critical size

before they can operate multinationally, and

French industry has lagged behind its competi-

tors in terms of its degree of multinational ac-

tivity. French companies were relatively small

at the beginning of the postwar period; subse-

quently only a limited number of very large

French companies developed. Multinational

companies are necessary for the international

strength and prestige of a national economy,

but their activities are very difficult for the

state to control.

JAN WINDEBANK

See also: economy; manufacturing industry

music festivals

France has a proud tradition of music festi-

vals associated with individual towns: for ex-

ample, Aix-en-Provence hosts an international

music festival (and also film and dance festi-

vals); Dijon has a music festival (in addition

to a theatre and wine festival), while Nice puts

on a jazz festival; Rennes organizes a rock fes-

tival (Les Trans-Musicales) and Strasbourg a

music festival. Paris has its own music festival

(La Fête de la Musique) in June. However,

since Easter 1977, the most significant music

festival to promote essentially French song has

been held annually in Bourges, a relatively

small town situated to the southeast of

Orléans and the southwest of Auxerre.

The so-called Printemps de Bourges

(Bourges Spring Festival) began as a French

version of popular music festivals held in the

English-speaking world, such as the now-de-

funct rock festival on the Isle of Wight in the

United Kingdom. The Printemps de Bourges—

which was sponsored by the local maison de

la culture and was run, as it still is today, by

its director Daniel Colling—immediately es-

tablished itself as the music festival; in no

small measure, because it gave the outstand-

ing Charles Trenet the opportunity to make

himself known to a whole new generation of

music lovers. From modest beginnings in terms

of paying spectators (12,000 in the first year

but 45,000 by 1980), the festival was able to

claim an aggregate audience of something ap-

proaching two million as it reached its twenti-

eth birthday. Perceived from the outset as a

venue which attracted an audience interested

in French song per se, rather than a specific

singer-songwriter, the festival has always been

an important meeting place, a point of con-

tact and of discussion, as well as offering the

opportunity to listen to established stars

(Trenet, Guy Béart, Georges Moustaki, Claude

Nougaro and Maxime Le Forestier, for exam-

ple), those in the process of establishing them-

selves (Renaud and Alain Souchon being the

most enduring examples), and others who

were looking for a breakthrough (Francis

Lalanne, for example).

The Bourges Spring Festival confirms re-

cent trends in French song and in the chang-

ing nature of music venues since the heyday of

Moustaki, Georges

385

the café-concert, the revue and the music hall.

While relatively intimate variations of the

cabaret and the larger music halls have long

since lost their mass appeal (the Paris Olym-

pia being a notable exception), festivals like

the one at Bourges and also single concerts in

much bigger arenas such as Bercy or the Palais

des Congrès (both in Paris) now attract num-

bers of spectators which were inconceivable,

even in the 1950s, to performances which are

heavily reliant on the new entertainment tech-

nology. What is also apparent is that French

audiences now spend more time listening to

performers on stage than they spend singing

along with—or indeed instead of—the singer

or singers in question (though it is still com-

mon for live audiences to join in the singing of

the biggest hits of the artists concerned). It is

the continued success of music festivals such

as the Printemps de Bourges, and, indeed, of

the increasingly influential Francofolies (a

music festival held in La Rochelle in July),

which helps to guarantee the ongoing public

attendance at live concerts in an age often

dominated by television and pop videos.

IAN PICKUP

See also: song/chanson

Further reading

Brunschwig, C., Calvet, J.-L. and Klein, J.-C.

(1981) Cent ans de chanson française,

Paris: Éditions du Seuil (an alphabetically

arranged reference work).

Fléouter, C. (1988) Un siècle de chansons,

Paris: PUF (a chronologically arranged ana-

lytical section is followed by an alphabeti-

cally arranged reference section).

Rioux, L. (1994) 50 ans de chanson française,

Paris: Archipel (a critical study organized

chronologically).

music industry

The music industry in France has, as elsewhere,

undergone major changes in the wake of the

technological revolution and the creation of

the worldwide market. If the microphone, the

talkies, 78 rpm records, microgroove records,

audio cassettes, CDs and video cassettes in turn

signalled new stages in audio and audiovisual

recording, successive changes in popular mu-

sical fashion which originated in France and

(more often) abroad have seen the growth of

an industry, aimed predominantly at the young,

that makes overnight millionaires of perform-

ers whose careers are often very ephemeral.

The globalization of the music industry saw

the arrival—and rapid domination—in France

of multinational companies at the expense of

more modest indigenous ones. By the mid-

1970s, Phonogram and EMI were outstripping

French firms such as Carrère, Vogue and

Barclay where the combined sales of singles

and LPs were concerned. Symptomatic of the

sea change the industry was undergoing was

the takeover of the Barclay label by the Poly-

gram Corporation in 1979 at a time when CBS

was making great inroads in the market. Since

then, Sony and Virgin are two of the multina-

tionals claiming their own huge slice of the

market (and the Virgin Megastore in Paris, for

example, can hold its own against the indig-

enous FNAC). If an established French singer

such as Jean Ferrat can still record on his own

label (Bisques Temey—a combination of his

own real name, Tenenbaum, and that of his

artistic director, Gérard Meys), it is significant

that the distribution of CDs is carried out by

Sony Music. Further examples of the domina-

tion of the multinationals are easy to find:

Gainsbourg’s CDs carry the Polygram label,

Renaud’s that of Virgin, while those of Francis

Cabrel and Patricia Kaas are labelled ‘Colum-

bia’, which is ‘the exclusive trademark of Sony

Music Entertainment me’.

If the commercial side of the music indus-

try is now firmly in the hands of the multina-

tionals, French song has for many years had

to face the threat to its position in French popu-

lar culture posed by Anglo-Saxon music. From

the time of the music hall, when a guest star

was known as a vedette américaine, through

the big-band era to that of rock and roll, punk,

heavy metal and rap, English-language songs

music industry

386

have had great success in France. The situa-

tion on the airwaves was deemed to be so criti-

cal in 1993 (the managing director of Skyrock

had admitted that 85 per cent of the songs his

radio station broadcast were in English) that

the Pelchat amendment imposed a minimum

quota of 40 per cent—effective from January

1996—for songs in the French language. Since

the quota came into effect, one only has to

peruse the programme listings for the M6 tel-

evision channel to realize that, if one wishes

to listen to songs in French, the middle of the

night is usually the best time. Despite such

ruses, and despite the significant presence at

music venues in France of stars from abroad,

French song continues to flourish, albeit for a

discerning minority.

IAN PICKUP

See also: song/chanson

Further reading

Delbourg, P. (1994) Mélodies chroniques: la

chanson française sur le gril, Paris: Le Cas-

tor Astral (a highly personal, critical look

at French song from 1980 to 1993, based

on articles which first appeared in the

press).

Hennion, F. (1981) Les Professionals du

disque, Paris: Métailié (a sociological study

of artistic creation and production in the

French popular music industry).

music venues

Changing tastes and the introduction of new

technology have radically changed the size and

nature of music venues in France since World

War II. The café-concert had already been

largely replaced by the cabaret, while music

halls had declined dramatically in numbers

with the advent of the cinema. However, the

late 1950s and 1960s saw the fashion of the

Left Bank cabaret in Paris where, in usually

cramped and smoke-filled surroundings, a pre-

dominantly young, intellectual and often left-

wing audience was able to listen to emerging

talents, such as Jean Ferrat, Hugues Aufray,

Serge Gainsbourg and Juliette Gréco; older

artists such as Léo Ferré had been performing

there since the 1940s. These cabarets, situated

in the Latin Quarter and in St-Germain-des-

Prés, often had evocative or slightly exotic

names: Le Tabou, La Rose Rouge, L’Échelle

de Jacob, L’Écluse, La Méthode, La Colombe,

La Contrescarpe, Le Cheval d’Or, and so on.

The songs of the Left Bank cabarets were of-

ten poetic, intellectual and anti-establishment.

The cramped surroundings encouraged the use

of the piano and, increasingly, the guitar for

musical accompaniment.

Variety theatres and music halls were de-

clining in number after the war but three of

the most famous—Les Trois Baudets, Bobino

and the Olympia—witnessed concerts by al-

most all the big names of French song of the

period. Today, the Olympia (reconstructed in

1997) is the one remaining traditional venue

which attracts the biggest stars, both French

and foreign; the rebuilt Bobino still welcomes

performers of lesser stature. Many cabarets still

thrive in Paris, on the Left and the Right Bank,

as do establishments which produce extrava-

gant revues such as the Moulin Rouge, the

Crazy Horse, L’Éléphant Bleu and La Belle

Époque. Chansonniers (politically motivated

singer-comedians who specialize in satire) can

still be seen in such establishments as Le

Caveau de la République and Les Deux Ânes.

For jazz enthusiasts there are many cabarets

specializing in traditional and modern jazz,

while lovers of classical music are not limited

to concert halls: many Parisian churches stage

classical concerts (for example, the Église St-

Germain-des-Prés, the Église St-Julien-le-

Pauvre and the Église de la Madeleine). Opera

lovers can listen to performances in such ven-

ues as the Opera Comique and the huge Opéra

National de Paris-Bastille.

Technological innovations have also meant

that popular music concerts can now be staged

in much larger venues than was possible in the

past and, after the pioneering concerts mounted

at the Palais des Congrès, for example, the huge

music venues

387

multisports complex at Bercy is capable of

housing some 14,000 or so spectators. Similar

concerts are staged at venues in the provinces

(such as the enormous Palais des Sports in

Toulouse). Much more modestly sized munici-

pal halls offer concerts in provincial towns,

many of which host their own music festivals.

Visitors to Paris may peruse the full list of

music venues in the capital and the surround-

ing area by consulting L’Officiel des specta-

cles, a modestly priced weekly publication on

sale at news-stands.

IAN PICKUP

See also: cultural topography (Paris); song/

chanson

Further reading

Brunschwig, C., Calvet, J.-L. and Klein, J.-C.

(1981) Cent ans de chanson française,

Paris: Éditions du Seuil (an alphabetically

arranged reference work).

music venues