“The boundary has been moved”: Hollywood cinéma-monde, film borders, and the multilingual assassin in Sicario and Inglourious Basterds

King, Gemma

doi:https://doi.org/10.3828/cfc.2022.3

King, Gemma

Contemporary French Civilization (2022), 47, (1), 47–65.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3828/cfc.2022.3
Language: English
Pages: 19

Abstract

Transnational coproductions, multilingual dialogue, and border-crossing of many forms are growing increasingly common in contemporary cinemas. As a result, assigning a nationality to a film can prove a slippery and even arbitrary process. This article takes a new approach to films such as Sicario (Denis Villeneuve 2015) and Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino 2009), analyzing texts traditionally viewed as American through the lens of cinéma-monde (Marshall 2012). It focuses in particular on these films’ use of maps, and on their strikingly similar multilingual assassination scenes, reading them through Bill Marshall’s characterization of a cinema that “dramatically focuses attention on four elements: borders, movement, language, and lateral connections” (42). Each of these films was directed by an established auteur working in a “foreign” space and non-native languages, and each depicts continual border-crossing, code-switching, and violence committed across geographic and linguistic lines. With significant American and other characteristics, neither Sicario nor Inglourious Basterds could be neatly categorized as Quebecois nor French respectively. Yet these films implicate the French-speaking world in diverse ways. Ultimately, the ways in which these films traverse, theorize, and weaponize the border begs a questioning of how far the concepts of national cinemas, and indeed of cinéma-monde, can be extended.

Les coproductions transnationales, le dialogue multilingue et le passage de frontières de maintes formes deviennent de plus en plus courants dans le cinéma contemporain. En conséquence, assigner une nationalité à un film peut s’avérer un processus incertain et même arbitraire. Cet article prend une nouvelle approche à des films comme Sicario (Denis Villeneuve 2015) et Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino 2009), analysant des textes traditionnellement considérés américains sous l’angle du cinémamonde (Marshall 2012). Il se focalise en particulier sur l’usage des cartes de ces films, ainsi que leurs scènes remarquablement similaires d’assassinat multilingue, les interprétant selon la description de Bill Marshall d’un cinéma qui “se concentre dramatiquement sur quatre éléments: les frontières, le mouvement, la langue, et les connexions latérales” (42). Chacun de ces films fut réalisé par un auteur bien établi travaillant dans un espace étranger et des langues étrangères, et chacun représente sans cesse le passage de frontières, le code-switching et la violence commise à travers des barrières linguistiques et géographiques. Avec des caractéristiques importantes américaines et étrangères, ni Sicario ni Inglourious Basterds ne pourrait être considéré comme uniquement québécois ou français respectivement. Pourtant, ces films impliquent le monde francophone de diverses manières. En fin de compte, les façons dont ces films traversent, théorisent et exploitent la frontière demandent jusqu’à quel point on peut se servir des concepts de cinémas nationaux, voire du cinéma-monde.

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King, Gemma

Contemporary French Civilization