Alain Robbe-Grillet

Placing Robbe-Grillet’s filmic oeuvre in the related contexts of both his novelistic work and the different historical and cultural periods in which his films were made, from the early 1960s to the present, the book traces lines of influence and continuity throughout his work, which is shown to exhibit a consistent preoccupation with an identifiable body of themes, motifs and structures. Close readings of all the films are skilfully combined with a thematic approach, ranging across the entire filmic corpus. The book also contains chapters on cinematography and technique. Now available in paperback, this lucid, comprehensive and fascinating study shows Robbe-Grillet’s contribution to the evolution of the cinematic art both in France and internationally to have been considerably more important than previously acknowledged.

"This timely and extremely well-researched study persuasively contends that Alain Robbe-Grillet's somewhat neglected filmic oeuvre has made a much more substantial contribution to the evolution of French cinema than has hitherto been acknowledged, and attempts to rehabilitate his reputation as an innovative avant-gardist film-maker who has expanded the language of contemporary cinema.", Edmund J. Smyth, Manchester Metropolitan University, French Studies, 1 October 2012|This overdue study makes for an erudite introduction and thoroughly explanatory 'user guide' to its slightly forbidding subject.Philips' study broadly revolves around the psychological, plastic and self-reflexive qualities of Robbe-Grillet's films., Jonathan L. Owen, University of St. Andrews, An Online Journal of Television Studies, Issue 24, 1 October 2012

John Phillips is Emeritus Professor of French at London Metropolitan University