Depiction of French Citizens-Foreigners Couples in French Cinema: From the 1990s to the Present
The attention of the French film directors has been less focused on marriage as a strategy adopted by migrants in order to remain in France as compared to other subjects related to mixed couples. With this in mind, the article looks at cinematic depictions of couples between French and foreign citizens, arguing that they allow us to question preconceived ideas about this kind of marriage by offering a more nuanced vision than the one spread by public authorities. For public authorities the institution of marriage would be threatened by the development of “sham marriages” (Ferran 2009). The films chosen for the analysis depict various situations: a couple that hastily plans their marriage in order to avoid the deportation of one of the spouses, a marriage as a means of regularization that ends the relationship, a marriage that is false for only one of the spouses, and the case of “mail order brides”.