Orlene McMahon
Lecturer
- Department: Communication, Media and Culture
Professor McMahon has been a part-time film lecturer at AUP since 2015. She completed a Bachelorâs Degree in Arts (English-Music) and a Masterâs Degree in Film Studies at University College Cork (Ireland). After a year out of academia in Paris, she commenced her PhD in 2007 as a member of Gonville & Caius College at the University of Cambridge. Combining her two passions, cinema and music, her doctoral research focused on the music and composers of the French New Wave. Since receiving her doctorate in 2012, she has taught at Paris-Sorbonne University (Paris IV), AUP, and the Ăcole normale supĂ©rieure (ENS).
McMahon's areas of research include French New Wave cinema, postwar European cinema, film music, and the more general fields of film history, theory, and criticism. Her first book Listening to the French New Wave: The Film Music and Composers of Postwar French Art Cinema was published by Peter Lang Oxford in 2014. Her most recent publication was a co-authored chapter on how music is used to explore the themes of memory, trauma, and the past in the films of Alain Resnais for the book Music in European Cinema. Current research interests focus on the topics of cinema as therapy and the relationship between psychology and film.
Education/Degrees
- 2014 âMaĂźtre de confĂ©rencesâ, Qualification from the French University System, CNU â Section 18 â 142182420021.
- 2012 Ph.D. (Film Music), University of Cambridge, Gonville & Caius College, UK.
- 2006 MA Degree in Film Studies with First Class Honours, University College Cork, Ireland.
- 2005 BA Degree with First Class Honours (Joint Degree âEnglish &Music), University College Cork, Ireland.
Publications
Book
- , Oxford: Peter Lang, 2014.
Chapter Articles
- âFugue States: Music, Memory, and Trauma in the 1960s Films of Alain Resnaisâ, in Music in European Cinema, Ed. Michael Baumgartner and Ewelina Boczkowska, New York: Routledge, 2020.
- âJacques Rivette: Un cinĂ©aste Ă la sensibilitĂ© musicale moderneâ, in La musique française de film, identitĂ©(s) et spĂ©cificitĂ©(s), Ed. JĂ©rĂŽme Rossi, Lyon: Symetrie, 2016.
- ÌęŸ±ČÔ Music and Sound in Documentary Film, Ed. Holly Rogers, New York: Routledge, 2014.
Journal Articles
- âAn Analysis of the Soundtrack in the Work of Malcolm Le Griceâ, Senses of Cinema, Issue 38 (Jan-March 2006), British Artistsâ Film & Video Study Collection Research Papers, Central Saint Martinâs College of Art and Design (Spring 2006).
Journal Reviews
- Conference review of âThe signifying body: Hendrix, 31 August 1970, 2.00amâ, Professor Nicholas Cook, JCMP Research Group International Seminars, Observatoire Musical Français (UniversitĂ© Paris-Sorbonne), February 23, 2013, in Volume! La revue des musiques populaires, Volume 10, Issue 2 (2014).
- Book review of Tuning In: American Narrative Television Music, Ron Rodman (UK: Oxford University Press, 2010), Music, Sound and the Moving Image (Liverpool UP), Volume 7, Issue 2, pp. 201â206 (Autumn, 2013).
- Book review of From Pac-Man to Pop Music: Interactive Audio in Games and New Media, Karen Collins, ed. (UK: Ashgate, 2008), Music, Sound and the Moving Image (Liverpool UP), Volume 4, Issue 1, pp. 123-129 (Spring 2010).
Conferences & Lectures
- âMusic, Motion, and Memory: Temporal Soundscapes in Chris Markerâs La jetĂ©eâ, Music and Screen Media Conference, Research Centre for Audio-Visual Media, University of Liverpool (June 2014).
- âMusic in French Cinema: The Evolution of Film Music in France from 1895 to the Presentâ, The American University of Paris, Summer Film Institute Events, Paris (July 2012).
- âCellular (Film Music) Composition: Jean-Claude Eloyâs Score for Jacques Rivetteâs La religieuse (1966)â, International Musicological Society, Music and Media Study Conference, Berlin (June 2010).
- âLa Nouvelle Vague: A Musical Revolution?â, Josai International University Media Studies Department: Alternative âSociety for Cinema and Media Studiesâ Conference, JIU, Tokyo (May 2009).
- âĂcoutez le cinema! : Rehearing the Nouvelle Vague, Fifty Years OnâŠâ, Studies in French Cinema Annual Conference: Screen Sounds, Kingâs College London (April 2009).
- âNouvelle Vague, New Music? : Listening to the French New Waveâ, Royal Musical Association Research Studentsâ Conference, Kingâs College London (January 2009).
- âChallenging Conventions: An Audiovisual Collaboration from the âFirst Waveâ of Irish Filmâ, 17th International Screen Studies Conference, Glasgow (July 2008).
- âChallenging Conventions: An Audiovisual Collaboration from the âFirst Waveâ of Irish Filmâ, Third Annual Music and the Moving Image Conference, NYU Steinhardt, New York (May 2008).
- âQuestions of Intermediality arising from The Tristan Projectâ, Sight of Sound: Intermedia, Interdisciplinary Research Training Network Conference, Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CRASSH), Cambridge University (November 2007).
Research Areas
- French New Wave Cinema
- Postwar European Cinema
- Film Music
- Film History
- Film Theory
- Film Criticism
- Cinema as Therapy
- Psychology and Film
- Interdisciplinarity