Susan Hayward
Susan Hayward - Professor of Cinema Studies at Exeter University and specialist in French cinema - reveals how she set about researching some of her books, including her current project:
"In French National Cinema (first published in 1993) I endeavoured to break new terrain in two ways. First by offering a comprehensive historical overview of France's national output from its beginnings in 1895 to the present period, locating the production against questions of the national political context. Second, by embracing for the first time considerations of all French feature productions: mainstream as well as auteur or avant-garde, the idea being to move away from the more auteurist approach to French cinema and to give a broader overview focusing on genre and trends.
"My book on Luc Besson was written as a response to the director's everlasting popularity with my students who persistently saw a positive trajectory in the personage of Nikita (in the film of the same name). Through the process of writing about his work I gradually became aware of the reasons why his films have such universal appeal. It was also a great occasion to use interesting theoretical approaches (especially Baudrillard) and apply them to his work.
"Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts again came out as a response to students, this time to a perceived need for them to have at their fingertips and as coherently written as possible all the major aspects of cinema studies. I learnt a great deal in the process of writing this book and indeed in updating the subsequent editions. It was also an extremely useful vehicle for presenting students with an overview of other cinemas from Asia and Africa in particular that they might not have been familiar with.
"Simone Signoret: The Star as Cultural Sign was a labour of love. I have so enjoyed this film actor's work, I desperately wanted to write a book about her. In this book I examine Signoret's impact as a political icon as much as a star performer.
"Currently I am working on a book on French costume drama of the 1950s. It has turned out to be an interesting journey so far - particularly in relation to debunking some of the long-standing myths (first established by the Cahiers du cinéma critics) that this cinema was old hat. In fact, on closer examination, there are many exciting things that have revealed themselves to me, first, in terms of production practices and, second, in terms of the political resonances of the costume dramas themselves.
"Needless to say, none of the research done for these many projects would have been possible without the existence of the BFI National Library and the library staff to whom I owe a deep debt of gratitude."
Professor Hayward's publications include:
Luc Besson (Manchester University Press, 1999 - revised edition)
Simone Signoret: The Star as Cultural Sign (Continuum Press, 2004)
Les Diaboliques (IB Tauris, 2005)
French National Cinema (Routledge, 2005 - revised edition)
Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts (Routledge, 2005 - revised edition)
Films of Luc Besson: Master of Spectacle (Manchester University Press, 2006) [ed. with Phil Powrie]
