Dr Ben McCann

Biography/ Background

Ben McCann completed a PhD in 1930s French Cinema at the University of Bristol.  He is particularly interested in 1930s French 'Poetic Realist' cinema, the films of Marcel Carné and Julien Duvivier, and developments in set design and décor practices in French cinema.

Ben is a regular book reviewer for Screening the Past (http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast) and is a member of both the Exhibition Group at the Adelaide Cinémathèque and the Review Panel of the Adelaide Film Festival.

From 2012, Ben is Associate Dean (First Year Experience) for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.

 

Qualifications

PhD: University of Bristol: 'Set Design, Spatial Configurations, and the Architectonics of 1930s French Poetic Realist Cinema' - (1999-2004)
BA (Hons): Keble College, Oxford University (French and History, 1994-1998)

Graduate Certificate in Higher Education: University of Adelaide - (2008)

Teaching English as a Foreign Language: Liverpool John Moores University - (2005)

Awards & Achievements

2008: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Prize for Excellence in Teaching

2009: Awarded a $219,000 Australian Learning and Teaching Council Grant entitled "A collaborative multi-faceted approach to address the gaps between student expectation and experience at uinversity" - Principal Investigator

2010: Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council: 'For using language immersion, along with joie de vivre, to motivate students and inspire engagement in French grammar, literature and culture'

2011: Stephen Cole the Elder Award for Excellence in Teaching

Teaching Interests

Ben is Course Co-ordinator of Beginners French (French IA and IB) and Course Co-ordinator of European Film Movements. 

In 2012, he will be teaching:

French IA and French IB (grammar, language, literature)

French IISB/IIIB: Representations of Paris in French Cinema

French ISA/IIA: Du texte à l’écran - Strategies of Adaptation in French Literature and Film

European Film Movements

He has been Honours Supervisor for recent theses on French colonial cinema and French immigration.

He is currently co-supervising three PhDs, on Jean-Luc Godard, French cinema and the body, and Tamil Nadu cinema and politics.

He welcomes Honours, MA, and PhD proposals on any area of French cinema.

Research Interests

French 1930s cinema, set design and decor, the development of the French horror film, the role of music and sound in Jacques Tati’s films, European auteur cinema, the French New Wave, developments in French New Millennium Cinema, the 'horror' and 'comedy' film genre, animation, the life and work of Alexandre Trauner.

Publications

Books

Single-authored
The Architectonics of 1930s French Poetic Realist Cinema [working title] (Bern: Peter Lang, 2012)

Le Jour se lève (London: I.B. Tauris, in press)

Edited volumes
McCann, B. and Sorfa D. [eds.] (2011) Cinema Utopia: The Cinema of Michael Haneke (Wallflower: London)

Book chapters

McCann, B. (forthcoming) 'New French Horror Cinema', in The Directory of World Cinema: France, eds. Tim Palmer and Charlie Michael (Intellect: Bristol)

McCann, B. (2011) "'A many splendoured thing?': Plural visions of the city in Paris je t'aime", in Hexagonal Variations: Diversity, Plurality and Reinvention in Contemporary French Studies, eds. Murray Pratt, Jo McCormack and Alistair Rolls (Rodopi: Amsterdam), pp. 339-354.

McCann, B. (2011) ‘Introduction', in Cinema Utopia: The Cinema of Michael Haneke (Wallflower: London), pp. 1-9.

McCann, B. (2011) ‘Acting, Performance and the Bressonian Impulse in Haneke's films', in Cinema Utopia: The Cinema of Michael Haneke (Wallflower: London), pp. 24-37.

McCann, B. (2008) "‘Du verre, rien que du verre': Negotiating utopia in Playtime", Nowhere is Perfect: French and Francophone Utopias/Dystopias, ed. John West-Sooby (University of Delaware Press: Newark), pp. 193-210.

McCann, B. (2007) "Bliss in Blueness: Colour Strategies in the Films of Michael Mann", Questions of Colour in Cinema: From Paintbrush to Pixel, ed. Wendy Everett (Peter Lang: Bern), pp. 141-160.

McCann, B. (2005) ‘Les Enfants du Paradis', The Cinema of France, ed. Phil Powrie, (London: Wallflower), pp.51-59.

McCann, B. (2003) "Enjoying the Scenery": Landscape and the Fetishisation of Nature in ‘Badlands' and ‘Days of Heaven', in The Cinema of Terrence Malick, ed. by Hannah Patterson, (London: Wallflower), pp. 75-85.

McCann, B (2000) ‘Spaces and Places - Architecture as an Instrument in Rewriting the Political: The Exposition Coloniale de Paris', Dialogues 3: Rewriting the Political, ed. by Daniel Hall and Ben McCann (London: Intellect) pp.75-81.

Articles

McCann, B. (forthcoming), 'OSS 117 - un peu de Sean, beaucoup de conneries: Jean Dujardin, James Bond and the Art of the Spoof', Essays in French Literature and Culture.

McCann, B. (2011), "'Je disais tout haut ce que beaucoup pensaient tout bas!': Marcel Carné, Film Critic', French Studies Bulletin, vol. 120, Autumn, pp. 57-62.

McCann, B. (2011), 'Marcel Carné', Senses of Cinema, vol. 58.  Published online 13 March 2011: http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2011/great-directors/marcel-carne.

McCann, B. (2009), '(Under)Scoring Poetic Realism - Maurice Jaubert and 1930s French Cinema', Studies in French Cinema, vol. 9(1), pp. 37-48.

McCann, B. (2009) ‘What Trauner did next': The Continuation of a French Design Aesthetic in an American Context, French Cultural Studies, vol. 20(1), pp. 65-81.

McCann, B. (2008) ‘Pierced Borders, Punctured Bodies: the Contemporary French Horror Film, Australian Journal of French Studies, vol. 45(3), pp. 225-237.

McCann, B., Brinkworth, R., Nordström, K., and Matthews, C. (2008) 'First Year Expectations and Experiences: Student and Teacher Perspectives', Higher Education. Published online: 6 December 2008: http://www.springerlink.com/content/j1683741v277j6n2/.

McCann, B. (2008) ‘"If it's not Disney, what is it?": Traditional Animation Techniques in Les Triplettes de Belleville', French Studies Bulletin, vol. 108, Autumn, pp. 59-62.

McCann, B. (2004) ‘"A discreet character?" Action spaces and architectural specificity in French poetic realist cinema', Screen, vol. 45/4, Winter, pp. 375-382.

 

Community Engagement

Elected Chair of the University of Adelaide Theatre Guild (elected June 2008)

Committee Member, Alliance Française of Adelaide (elected May 2009)

Member of the Adelaide EDGE Rotary Club (elected July 2006)

Files

• Michael Haneke - 41-Ww50sO3L__SL500_AA300_.jpg [12.9K] (image/jpeg)
• PhD abstract - Abstract.doc [21.5K] (application/msword)

Expertise for Media Contact

Categories	Arts and culture, Foreign language & culture
Expertise	French cinema; European cinema; film culture; contemporary French society
Notes	Member of the Exhibition Group at the Adelaide Cinémathèque; Chair of the University of Adelaide Theatre Guild; 2010: Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council: 'For using language immersion, along with joie de vivre, to motivate students and inspire engagement in French grammar, literature and culture'

Entry last updated: Sunday, 20 May 2012