‘Banlieue Film’: On the Troubled Spatiality of a ‘Genre-Simulacre’ Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

This dissertation argues that the French banlieue functions as a simulacrum — a hyperreal construct shaped by modernist urban planning ideologies, particularly Le Corbusier’s influence on the ‘grands ensembles’, and continually reinforced by mass media. Rather than merely reflecting reality, the banlieue has become a space where mediated representations are indistinguishable from its perceived existence. This study extends this concept to banlieue filmmaking itself, proposing it as a ‘genre-simulacre’ that, despite its apparent limitations, offers potent avenues for challenging this pervasive urban and cinematic myth.

Drawing extensively on Jean Baudrillard’s postmodern framework, this research explores how contemporary banlieue cinema engages with this constructed hyperreality. Films such as Mathieu Kassovitz’s seminal La Haine (1995) and more recent works like Ladj Ly’s Les Misérables (2019), Romain Gavras’s Athena (2022), and Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’s Gagarine (2020), are analyzed. Their innovative aesthetics and narrative strategies confront the mediated nature of the ‘banlieue-simulacre’, moving beyond social realism to expose the systemic forces that create and sustain the simulation.

The dissertation further examines how generic hybridization, exemplified by the “Urban Western” in films like Cédric Jimenez’s BAC Nord (2021) and Lola Quivoron’s Rodeo (2022), complicates the genre’s spatial and thematic definitions. This intertextual engagement reveals possibilities for challenging the banlieue’s imposed limitations, offering narratives of radical freedom and redefinition that transcend its architectural confines. This dissertation also demonstrates how the ‘banlieue-simulacre’ extends its reach beyond its traditional representations, permeating other marginalized cultural and territorial landscapes, as seen in Stéphane Demoustier’s ‘Corsica-banlieue’ in Borgo (2023), and Gagarine’s reimagining of the ‘grand ensemble’ as spaceship.

Ultimately, this dissertation contends that banlieue cinema, by embracing its nature as a ‘genre-simulacre’, provides a crucial lens for interpreting films about marginalized spaces in an increasingly mass-mediated world. By renegotiating media literacy and mediated images, the films analyzed actively participate in the emergence of cinematic spaces that transcend the fleeting nature of meaning to embrace the enduring and invulnerable power of appearances. This approach offers a commentary on the elusive nature of truth and reality in our hyperreal condition, where the persistence of appearances often outweighs the search for definitive meaning.

Table of Contents

Introduction............................................................................................................................................................1

Chapter 1. Navigating The Simulation: Kourtrajmé’s Spatial (Re)Invention of Contemporary Banlieue Filmmaking.......42

Chapter 2. From Banlieue Filmmaking To “Urban Western”: Generic Trouble and Spatial Affirmation..........................96

Chapter 3. Banlieue And Beyond: Expanding, Demolishing, Reimagining the Simulation...........................................149

Conclusion. The ‘Banlieue-Simulacre’ In the Era of Demolition...............................................................................213

References..........................................................................................................................................................219

Filmography........................................................................................................................................................229

About this Dissertation

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	French
Degree	Ph.D.
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Cinema Urban and Regional Planning
关键词	Baudrillard banlieue simulacre banlieue filmmaking
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Valérie Loichot, Emory University
Committee Members	Elissa Marder, Emory University Subha Xavier, Emory University Chad Córdova, Cornell University Timothy Holland, Emory University

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