29

Renewing work on the relationship between film criticism and politics, this article defines politicisation as an intertextuality between film reviews published in the press and coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is highly debated in the news. From a transnational perspective, it compares 400 professional French, English, American and Israeli reviews of ten Israeli and Palestinian films released in the 2000-2014 period, when this cinema is enjoying remarkable international success. Based on a quantitative analysis of content and a qualitative analysis of discourse, it confirms that the topicality of the conflict affects film criticism, with different inflections in each of the four countries, depending on: the dominant national political perspective on Israel-Palestine; the journalistic tradition, between American rhetoric of neutrality and more personal French journalism; the perception of cinema on a spectrum ranging from a legitimate art form to commercial entertainment. In all three areas, the influence of national culture on criticism outweighs any political differences that might separate press publications in each country.‪