Dr. Adrien Valgalier

Dr. Adrien Valgalier

Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France

About me

After obtaining two bachelor’s degrees, one in cinema and the other in modern literature, and completing a MA in film studies, I defended in 2023 a PhD at the Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, focusing on popular French comedies from the 1960s-1970s (supervised by Pr. Pietsie Feenstra). My research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of films, reconsidering them based on their cultural implications, the social representations they convey, and rethinking them in terms of their areas and modes of circulation. In addition to my research, since 2017, I have been teaching film history, film aesthetics, and film analysis at the Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3. Alongside my teaching and research activities, I also work as a film critic (for the magazine La Septième Obsession) and contribute to the selection of films for the Cannes Film Festival. From 2017 to 2022, I also worked as a video journalist for the Cannes Critics’ Week. I joined the AGE-C project in September 2024 as a postdoctoral researcher.

Contact

adrien.valgalier[at]sorbonne-nouvelle.fr

Research interests

Comedy, French cinema, film genre, history of cinema, cultural history, star studies, social and historical imaginaries in cinema, transfers between cinema, the arts, and media (television, performing arts), film criticism.

Publications

Adrien Valgalier, « Naissance, construction et mise en scène d’une vedette. Fernandel dans la presse généraliste française des années 1930 », dans Anne Bléger et Myriam Tsikounas (dir.), La Fabrication des vedettes dans l’entre-deux-guerres, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, coll. « Histoire », 2024, p. 105-120.

Adrien Valgalier, « Les comédies populaires françaises des années 1960-1970 : conception, imaginaires, mémoires », thèse de doctorat en études cinématographiques et audiovisuelles, dir. Pietsie Feesntra, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, 2023, 584 p.

Adrien Valgalier, « L’univers déphasé de Pierre Richard : masculinités ambivalentes d’un corps anti-performant », Genre en série : cinéma, télévision, médias, n°12-13 (« Genre et comédie : stars, performances, personnages »), 2022. URL : https://journals.openedition.org/ges/3173.

Adrien Valgalier, « Féérie sociale et identité artistique : la portée symbolique et culturelle du cirque dans L’Aile ou la Cuisse de Claude Zidi », Circus Science, n°2 (« Cirque et cinéma »), 2022, p. 111-120. URL : https://www.pulm.fr/media/wysiwyg/documents/Circus_Science_2_1.pdf.

Adrien Valgalier, « “Y a pas de mai !” : le désamorçage de Mai 68 dans La Carapate de Gérard Oury », À l’épreuve, n°6, 2019. URL : https://alepreuve.org/node/211.

Adrien Valgalier, « Mythologies culinaires : défense et illustration de la gastronomie française traditionnelle dans L’Aile ou la Cuisse de Claude Zidi », Le Pardaillan, n°5 (« Nourriture »), 2018, p. 107-116.

Activities

Teaching Assistant, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, Departement of Cinema, Audiovisual, New Media.

Film critic for La Septième Obsession.

Member of the Cannes Film Festival selection committee.

My AGE-C Story

In a chapter of my thesis, I had the opportunity to address the issue of aging by examining two popular French comedies, Les Vieux de la vieille (Gilles Grangier, 1960) and La Soupe aux choux (Jean Girault, 1981). These two films, featuring renowned actors such as Jean Gabin and Louis de Funès, present a complex depiction of old age through eccentric and marginal characters, who stand in rebellion against the modern world. These works offer valuable insights into the fears and fantasies that society harbors regarding aging. The AGE-C project provides an excellent opportunity to further explore how such socio-cultural issues are connected to the representation of aging in contemporary European cinema. In our increasingly aging societies, the analysis of cinematic narratives and depictions related to old age allows for a deeper understanding of the collective imagination surrounding aging, as well as how we perceive it. These representations, intertwined with questions of stardom, film genres, and gender, raise the question: do they reinforce stereotypical visions of aging, or do they offer reimagined perspectives? I am eager to engage with these issues as part of a European research team. The international scope of this project undoubtedly promises to provide rich and varied insight.