Cahiers Du Cinéma
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''Cahiers du Cinéma'' (, ) is a French
film magazine Film periodicals combine discussion of individual films, genres and directors with in-depth considerations of the medium and the conditions of its production and reception. Their articles contrast with film reviewing in newspapers and magazines whi ...
co-founded in 1951 by
André Bazin André Bazin (; 18 April 1918 – 11 November 1958) was a renowned and influential French film critic and film theorist. Bazin started to write about film in 1943 and was a co-founder of the renowned film magazine ''Cahiers du cinéma'' in 1951, ...
,
Jacques Doniol-Valcroze Jacques Doniol-Valcroze (; 15 March 1920 – 6 October 1989) was a French actor, critic, screenwriter, and director. In 1951, Doniol-Valcroze was a co-founder of the renowned film magazine ''Cahiers du cinéma'', along with André Bazin and Jo ...
, and
Joseph-Marie Lo Duca Joseph-Marie Lo Duca (; 18 November 1905 or 1910 – 6 August 2004) was an Italian-born journalist, novelist, art critic, and film historian best known as the co-founder in 1951 of the influential French magazine ''Cahiers du Cinéma'' with André B ...
.Itzkoff, Dave (9 February 2009
''Cahiers Du Cinéma Will Continue to Publish''
The New York Times
Macnab, Geoffrey (7 April 2001
''Pretentious, nous?''
''The Guardian''
It developed from the earlier magazine ''Revue du Cinéma'' ( established in 1928) involving members of two
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
film clubs Objectif 49 (
Robert Bresson Robert Bresson (; 25 September 1901 – 18 December 1999) was a French film director. Known for his ascetic approach, Bresson contributed notably to the art of cinema; his non-professional actors, ellipses, and sparse use of scoring have l ...
,
Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...
, and
Alexandre Astruc Alexandre Astruc (; 13 July 1923 – 19 May 2016) was a French film critic and film director. Biography Before becoming a film director he was a journalist, novelist and film critic. His contribution to the auteur theory centers on his notion ...
, among others; ) and Ciné-Club du Quartier Latin (). Initially edited by Doniol-Valcroze and, after 1957, by
Éric Rohmer Jean Marie Maurice Schérer or Maurice Henri Joseph Schérer, known as Éric Rohmer (; 21 March 192011 January 2010), was a French film director, film critic, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and teacher. Rohmer was the last of the post-World ...
(aka, Maurice Scherer), it included amongst its writers
Jacques Rivette Jacques Rivette (; 1 March 1928 – 29 January 2016) was a French film director and film critic most commonly associated with the French New Wave and the film magazine '' Cahiers du Cinéma''. He made twenty-nine films, including '' L'amour f ...
,
Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran ...
, Claude Chabrol, and François Truffaut, who went on to become highly influential filmmakers. It is the oldest French-language film magazine in publication.


History

The first issue of ''Cahiers'' appeared in April 1951. Much of its head staff, including Bazin, Doniol-Valcroze, Lo Duca, and the various younger, less-established critics, had met and shared their beliefs about film through their involvement in the publication of ''Revue du Cinéma'' from 1946 until its final issue in 1948; ''Cahiers'' was created as a successor to this earlier magazine. Early issues of ''Cahiers'' were small journals of thirty pages which bore minimalist covers, distinctive for their lack of headlines in favor of film stills on a distinctive bright yellow background. Each issue contained four or five articles (with at least one piece by Bazin in most issues),Bickerton 2009, p. 21-22. most of which were reviews of specific films or appreciations of directors, supplemented on occasion by longer theoretical essays.Bickerton 2009, p. 15-16. The first few years of the magazine's publication were dominated by Bazin, who was the ''de facto'' head of the editorial board. Bazin intended ''Cahiers'' to be a continuation of the intellectual form of criticism that ''Revue'' had printed, which prominently featured his articles advocating for realism as the most valuable quality of cinema. As more issues of ''Cahiers'' were published, however, Bazin found that a group of young proteges and critics serving as editors underneath him were beginning to disagree with him in the pages of the magazine. Godard would voice his discontent with Bazin as early as 1952, when he challenged Bazin's views on editing in an article for the September issue of ''Cahiers.''Godard, Jean-Luc (September 1952) ''Defense And Illustration of Classical Construction'' Cahiers du Cinéma Gradually, the tastes of these young critics drifted away from those of Bazin, as members of the group began to write critical appreciations of more commercial American filmmakers such as
Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
and Howard Hawks rather than the canonized French and Italian filmmakers that interested Bazin. The younger critics broke completely with Bazin by 1954, when an article in the January issue by Truffaut attacked what he called ''La qualité française'' (, usually translated as "The Tradition of Quality"), denouncing many critically respected French films of the time as being unimaginative, oversimplified, and even immoral adaptations of literary works.Truffaut, François (January 1954) ''A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema'' Cahiers du Cinéma The article became the manifesto for the ''politique des auteurs'' (), which became the label for ''Cahiers'' younger critics' emphasis on the importance of the director in the creation of a filmas a film's "author"and their re-evaluation of Hollywood films and directors such as Hitchcock, Hawks,
Jerry Lewis Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian. As his contributions to comedy and charity made him a global figure in popular culture, pop culture ...
, Robert Aldrich,
Nicholas Ray Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle Jr., August 7, 1911 – June 16, 1979) was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor best known for the 1955 film '' Rebel Without a Cause.'' He is appreciated for many narrative features p ...
, and
Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...
. Subsequently, American critic
Andrew Sarris Andrew Sarris (October 31, 1928 – June 20, 2012) was an American film critic. He was a leading proponent of the auteur theory of film criticism. Early life Sarris was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Greek immigrant parents, Themis (née Katav ...
latched onto the word, "auteur", and paired it with the English word, "theory"; hence coining the phrase the "
auteur theory An auteur (; , 'author') is an artist with a distinctive approach, usually a film director whose filmmaking control is so unbounded but personal that the director is likened to the "author" of the film, which thus manifests the director's unique ...
" by which this critical approach is known in English-language film criticism. After the publication of Truffaut's article, Doniol-Valcroze and most of the ''Cahiers'' editors besides Bazin and Lo Duca rallied behind the rebellious authors; Lo Duca left ''Cahiers'' a year later, while Bazin, in failing health, gave editorial control of the magazine to Rohmer and largely left Paris, though he continued to write for the magazine. Now with control over the magazine's ideological approaches to film, the younger critics (minus Godard, who had left Paris in 1952, not to return until 1956) changed the format of ''Cahiers'' somewhat, frequently conducting interviews with directors deemed "auteurs" and voting on films in a "Council" of ten core critics.Bickerton 2009, p. 22-23. These critics came to champion non-American directors as well, writing on the '' mise en scène'' (the "dominant object of study" at the magazine)Bickerton 2009, p. 28. of such filmmakers as
Jean Renoir Jean Renoir (; 15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent film, silent era to the end of the 1960s. ...
,
Roberto Rossellini Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such ...
,
Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, who directed about one hundred films during his career between 1923 and 1956. His most acclaimed works include ''The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums'' (1939), '' The Life of Oharu'' (1952), ''Ugets ...
,
Max Ophüls Maximillian Oppenheimer (; 6 May 1902 – 26 March 1957), known as Max Ophüls (; ), was a German-French film director who worked in Germany (1931–1933), France (1933–1940 and 1950–1957), and the United States (1947–1950). He made near ...
, and
Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...
, many of whom Bazin had introduced them to. By the end of the 1950s, many of the remaining editors of ''Cahiers'', however, were becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the mere act of writing film criticism. Spurred on by the return of Godard to Paris in 1956 (who in the interim had made a short film himself), many of the younger critics became interested in making films themselves. Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol, Doniol-Valcroze, and even Rohmer, who had officially succeeded Doniol-Valcroze as head editor in 1958, began to divide their time between making films and writing about them.Bickerton 2009, p. 32-33. The films that these critics made were experimental explorations of various theoretical, artistic, and ideological aspects of the film form, and would, along with the films of young French filmmakers outside the ''Cahiers'' circle, form the basis for the cinematic movement known as the French New Wave.Brody, Richard (20 June 2017
''Notes on Cahiers''
The New Yorker
Meanwhile, ''Cahiers'' underwent staff changes, as Rohmer hired new editors such as Jean Douchet to fill the roles of those editors who were now making films, while other existing editors, particularly Jacques Rivette, began to write even more for the magazine.Bickerton 2009, p. 32-38. Many of the newer critical voices (except for Rivette) largely ignored the films of the New Wave for Hollywood when they were not outright criticizing them, creating friction between much of the directorial side of the younger critics and the head editor Rohmer. A group of five ''Cahiers'' editors, including Godard and Doniol-Valcroze and led by Rivette, urged Rohmer to refocus the magazine's content on newer films such as their own. When he refused, the "gang of five" forced Rohmer out and installed Rivette as his replacement in 1963.Bickerton 2009, p. 38-41. Rivette shifted political and social concerns farther to the left, and began a trend in the magazine of paying more attention to non-Hollywood films. The style of the journal moved through literary modernism in the early 1960s to radicalism and dialectical materialism by 1970. Moreover, during the mid-1970s the magazine was run by a
Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...
editorial collective. In the mid-1970s, a review of the American film ''
Jaws Jaws or Jaw may refer to: Anatomy * Jaw, an opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth ** Mandible, the lower jaw Arts, entertainment, and media * Jaws (James Bond), a character in ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' and ''Moonraker'' * ...
'' marked the magazine's return to more commercial perspectives, and an editorial turnover: (
Serge Daney Serge Daney (June 4, 1944, Paris – June 12, 1992) was a French movie critic. He was a major figure of ''Cahiers du cinéma'' which he co-edited in the late 1970s. He also wrote extensively about films, television, and society in the newspaper ''Li ...
, Serge Toubiana, Thierry Jousse, Antoine de Baecque, and Charles Tesson). It led to the rehabilitation of some of the old ''Cahiers'' favourites, as well as some new film makers like Manoel de Oliveira,
Raoul Ruiz __NOTOC__ Raoul is a French variant of the male given name Ralph or Rudolph, and a cognate of Raul. Raoul may also refer to: Given name * Raoul Berger, American legal scholar * Raoul Bova, Italian actor * Radulphus Brito (Raoul le Breton, died ...
,
Hou Hsiao-hsien Hou Hsiao-hsien (; born 8 April 1947) is a Mainland Chinese-born Taiwanese film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a leading figure in world cinema and in Taiwan's New Wave cinema movement. He won the Golden Lion at the Venice ...
,
Youssef Chahine Youssef Chahine ( ar, يوسف شاهين, Yūsuf Shāhīn ; 25 January 1926 – 27 July 2008) was an Egyptian film director. He was active in the Egyptian film industry from 1950 until his death. He directed twelve films that were listed ...
, and
Maurice Pialat Maurice Pialat (; 31 August 1925 – 11 January 2003) was a French film director, screenwriter and actor known for the rigorous and unsentimental style of his films. His work is often described as " realist",
. Recent writers have included Daney, André Téchiné, Léos Carax, Olivier Assayas, Danièle Dubroux, and Serge Le Péron. In 1998, the Editions de l'Etoile (the company publishing ''Cahiers'') was acquired by the press group ''
Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
''. Traditionally losing money, the magazine attempted a make-over in 1999 to gain new readers, leading to a first split among writers and resulting in a magazine addressing all visual arts in a
post-modernist Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...
approach. This version of the magazine printed ill-received opinion pieces on reality TV or
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s that confused the traditional readership of the magazine. ''Le Monde'' took full editorial control of the magazine in 2003, appointing
Jean-Michel Frodon Jean-Michel Frodon (born 20 September 1953 in Paris) is a journalist, critic and historian of cinema. Biography Born Jean-Michel Billard, he writes with a pseudonym borrowed from Frodo of ''The Lord of the Rings''. He has a master's degree and a ...
as editor-in-chief. In February 2009, ''Cahiers'' was acquired from ''Le Monde'' by Richard Schlagman, also owner of Phaidon Press, a worldwide publishing group which specialises in books on the visual arts. In July 2009, Stéphane Delorme and Jean-Philippe Tessé were promoted respectively to the positions of editor-in-chief and deputy chief editor. In February 2020, the magazine was bought by several French entrepreneurs, including
Xavier Niel Xavier Niel (born 25 August 1967) is a French billionaire businessman involved in the telecommunications and technology industry. He is best known as founder and majority shareholder of the French Internet service provider and mobile operator I ...
and
Alain Weill Alain Weill (born 6 April 1961) is a French business executive. He is the founder, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of NextRadioTV (which includes BFM TV and Radio Monte Carlo) and Chairman and CEO of SFR Group. Early life Al ...
. The entire editorial staff resigned, saying the change posed a threat to their editorial independence.


Annual top 10 films list

The magazine has compiled a list of the top 10 films of each year for much of its existence.


See also

*'' Positif'' *''
Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
'' *''
Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
'' *
List of film periodicals Film periodicals combine discussion of individual films, genres and directors with in-depth considerations of the medium and the conditions of its production and reception. Their articles contrast with film reviewing in newspapers and magazines whi ...
*
Cinephilia Cinephilia (; also cinemaphilia or filmophilia) is the term used to refer to a passionate interest in films, film theory, and film criticism. The term is a portmanteau of the words cinema and philia, one of the four ancient Greek words for love. ...


References


Further reading

* Bickerton, E. (2009). ''A Short History of Cahiers du Cinéma''. London: Verso. * Hillier, Jim (1985). ''Cahiers du Cinéma the 1950s''. London : RKP/BFI. * Hillier, Jim (1986) ''Cahiers du Cinéma the 1960s''. London: BFI.


External links

*
Top 10 list
(for years 1951, 1955–1968, 1981–2009)
Dave Kehr's Article on the magazine on its fiftieth anniversary

''Cahiers du Cinema'': Top 10 Lists (1951-2017)
on
IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

Issues of Cahiers du Cinéma on Internet Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cahiers du Cinéma 1951 establishments in France Film magazines published in France French-language magazines Monthly magazines published in France Magazines established in 1951 Magazines published in Paris Top film lists