Recurrent phenomena in French film studies: from television to digital media

This paper is a comparative study of the impact on French film studies of the emergence of television and digital technologies. The goal of the comparison between what the author calls the 'television revolution' - a period in which film theorists became aware of the impact of television on the study of cinema - and the now well-known 'digital revolution' is to observe the recurrence of specific phenomena in the history of film studies in France. The author argues that during both the television and digital revolutions there appears to be a desire to compare cinema with other media while at the same time asserting its specificity. The impact of the television and digital revolutions on film studies in France is thus two-fold: (1) the broadening of the discipline's boundaries to include other media and other research methods; and (2) the redefinition of cinema based on a singular definition of the medium.