Hugo Frey, "Patrick Modiano Image Maker/Louis Malle Writer: Questioning Cultural Role Allocation"

This talk explores the implication of cultural role allocation swapping. How do we imagine a filmmaker as a writer (Louis Malle) and what happens to our understanding of Patrick Modiano when he is viewed as a visual artist. The presentation suggests the productive energy of this reframing. In particular it highlights the longstanding role the visual arts have played in the making of Modiano's career. Discussion will include his collaborations with artists, notably Pierre Le Tan, as well as his consistent associations with photography and cinema.

The event will take place in person and is open to the public. A virtual room can be set up on request for valid reasons (physical distance, study commitments abroad, health issues, etc.) by emailing ficlit.textl@unibo.it to receive a personal invitation link.

Professor Hugo Frey is Chair in Visual and Cultural History at the University of Chichester, UK, and has been a visiting Professor at the University of Gent. He is the author of the only English language study of the cinema of Louis Malle (Manchester University Press, 2004) and has written extensively on film and graphic narrative in France and the USA. His new work is co-authored with Professor Jan Baetens, The Look of the 1960s: Barbarella and the Pulp Pop Comics (University of Texas Press, 2026).