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La Nouvelle Vague Est-Elle Un Cinéma Existentialiste Français ?, Niuniu Zhang

Honors Theses

Throughout the world, Existentialism and New Wave Cinema are two defining pinnacles of French culture. As iconic of France as the baguette and cheese, the two subjects continue to retain their relevance in French and francophone cultural studies. My thesis explores the correlation between French existentialist philosophy and French New Wave cinema to argue for what can be called French Existentialist Cinema. In terms of French existentialist philosophy, I focus mainly on Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Albert Camus. As for the French New Wave, I focus first on one of its most highly admired precursors, Jean Vigo and …