Political Alterity in Pathé’s French and British Newsreel Coverage of the May 1968 Events in Paris

Abstract

This article analyzes the use of alterity in Pathé’s British and French newsreels depicting the May 1968 events in Paris. It argues that items from both newsreels construct the viewers’ country as a center of civilized democracy, using various figures of alterity (including voiceover, dubbing, camera techniques, cuts, and other forms of editing) to distance those at home from the scenes of violence on the streets of Paris. The French newsreel presents Charles de Gaulle as a democratic leader and blames naïve students in the Latin Quarter for inflaming violent sentiments among the impressionable “ordinary workers.” By contrast, the British newsreel presents the French government as failing to control a warlike mob with unreasonable demands. Though they frame the divisions along different lines, the items from both newsreels use alterity to differentiate their audiences from the protestors on the street and to place the responsibility for the riots far from home.