Critique in the face of otherness

This article examines the encounter between a cinematographic object (Bande de filles, by Céline Sciamma) and a group of specialized journalists, usually termed “film critics”. Studying the way in which these critics received and treated this film—which features “black boys and girls” living in working-class Parisian suburbs—it is more than an exploration of the professional conditions of critical judgment. In a cross-analysis of journalists’ positions and writings, the author explores the professional, sociological, and ideological drivers of a “good” critical reception, and posits that “race” played a part in the way Bande de filles was received. The framing of the plot and the casting, as well as the oppositions between critiques, all inform us about the place that race relations can hold in the development of a critical consensus.