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 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 Léonide Keigel.

Biography

Lo Duca (originally Giuseppe Lo Duca) was born in Milan, Italy in 1905 or 1910 to a family of Sicilian origin. Fascinated from an early age with reading and writing, he published his first novel ''La sfera di platino'' ("The Sphere of Platinum") in 1927. His later work, translated and published in France, won the enthusiasm of André Breton,

Paul Valéry Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, mus ...

, Marcel Griaule, 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 ...

. To avoid arrest after a feud with sculptor

Arturo Martini Arturo Martini (1889–1947) was a leading Italian sculptor between World War I and II. He moved between a very vigorous (almost ancient Roman) classicism and modernism. He was associated with public sculpture in fascist Italy, but later renounc ...

, Lo Duca emigrated to Paris in 1935 where he was eventually appointed director of the Centre international de documentation photographique et cinématographique de Paris (International Centre of Photographic and Cinematographic Documentation of Paris). With Paul Valéry, he co-wrote ''Conversation sur l’histoire'' along with monographs on painters including

Henri Rousseau Henri Julien Félix Rousseau (; 21 May 1844 – 2 September 1910)
at the Giorgio de Chirico Giuseppe Maria Alberto Giorgio de Chirico ( , ; 10 July 1888 – 20 November 1978) was an Italian artist and writer born in Greece. In the years before World War I, he founded the '' scuola metafisica'' art movement, which profoundly influ ...

. In 1942, having assembled a wealth of rare documents and objects related to cinema, Lo Duca established the Musée Canudo at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris with the goal of founding the International Museum of Cinema in Rome. The project for the Rome museum, however, did not survive the war. In 1948, he published ''Le dessin animé'' (''The Animated Cartoon'') with a preface by

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

. His ''Histoire du cinéma'' (1942) was translated into 12 languages, and ''Technique du cinéma'' (1948) became a noted reference work. His novel ''Journal secret de Napoléon Bonaparte'' (''The Secret Diary of Napoleon Bonaparte''), published in 1948 with a preface by Jean Cocteau, received enthusiastic reviews from Georges Bataille, Jacques Audiberti,

Joseph Delteil Joseph Delteil (20 April 1894 – 16 April 1978) was a 20th-century French writer and poet. Biography Joseph Delteil was born in the farm of La Pradeille, from a woodcutter-charcoal father and a "buissonnière" mother. Joseph Delteil spent ...

Marcel Pagnol Marcel Paul Pagnol (; 28 February 1895 – 18 April 1974) was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. Regarded as an auteur, in 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie française. Although his work is less fashionabl ...

Jean Dutourd Jean Gwenaël Dutourd (; 14 January 192017 January 2011) was a French novelist. Biography Dutourd was born in Paris. His mother died when he was seven years old. At the age of twenty, he was taken prisoner fifteen days after Germany's invasion ...

, and Jacques Chastenet. André Breton claimed the author had invented "history-fiction", a new literary genre. Acknowledged as his greatest success, the novel was re-published in France in 1980 and 1997. In 1951, he co-founded the '' Cahiers du Cinéma'' and remained on its editorial board until 1955. Between 1958 and 1967, Lo Duca co-edited the Bibliothèque internationale d'érotologie (International Library of Erotology) published by

Jean-Jacques Pauvert Jean-Jacques Pauvert (8 April 1926 – 27 September 2014) was a French publisher, notable for publishing the work of the Marquis de Sade in the early 1950s and as the first publisher of the '' Story of O'' (1954) and the first edition of Kenneth ...

. A specialist in erotic art, his works include ''Eros im Bild'' (1942) with a preface by Georges Bataille, ''L'erotismo nel cinema'' (1945), ''Storia dell'erotismo'' (1968), ''Dizionario di sessuologia'' (1972), ''Manuel des confesseurs'' (1982), and ''Luxure de luxe: arte erotica nei fumetti da Botticelli a Lichtenstein'', (1983). Erudite with a taste for provocation, he published ''Les mines de Sodome'' (2001), a trilogy of sexually explicit short stories, when he was over 90 years old. In 1951, Joseph-Marie Lo Duca found a copy of the negative of Carl Theodor Dreyer's second version of 'The passion of Joan of Arc' in the Gaumont Studios vaults. Lo Duca then made several significant changes, including the addition of a Baroque score and the replacing of many intertitles with subtitles. For many years, Lo Duca's version was the only one available. Dreyer himself objected to this cut, however. In 1960, he edited the novelized French version of Federico Fellini's ''

La Dolce Vita ''La Dolce Vita'' (; Italian for "the sweet life" or "the good life"Kezich, 203) is a 1960 satirical comedy-drama film directed and co-written (with Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi) by Federico Fellini. The film stars Marcello ...

''. In 1974, he wrote the preface to the French edition of the screenplay of '' Amarcord'' written by Fellini and

Tonino Guerra Antonio "Tonino" Guerra (16 March 1920 – 21 March 2012) was an Italian poet, writer and screenwriter who collaborated with some of the most prominent film directors in the world. Life and work Guerra was born in Santarcangelo di Romagna. Acco ...

. Interviewed by

Radio France Radio France is the French national public radio broadcaster. Stations Radio France offers seven national networks: * France Inter — Radio France's " generalist" station, featuring entertaining and informative talk mixed with a wide variety o ...

in 1999 about his long career, he highlighted his defense of the freedom of artistic expression under severe French censorship during the 1960s. In 2004, he granted his last major interview to Canadian filmmaker

Damian Pettigrew Damian (also Damien) Pettigrew (March 10, 1963) is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, author, and multimedia artist, best known for his cinematic portraits of Balthus, Federico Fellini, and Jean Giraud. Released theatrically in fif ...

on the creative relationship between Fellini and his wife

Giulietta Masina Giulia Anna "Giulietta" Masina (22 February 1921 – 23 March 1994) was an Italian film actress best known for her performances as Gelsomina in ''La Strada'' (1954) and Cabiria in ''Nights of Cabiria'' (1957), for which she won the Cannes Film F ...

as well as Italian writer Mario Tobino's influence on the screenplay of ''La Dolce Vita''."Interview with Jean-Marie Lo Duca" included in bonus material of ''Fellini: 8 films'', an 8-disc DVD international Collectors Edition published by Opening (Paris, 2004). In 1998, he moved from the Paris suburb of

Nanterre Nanterre (, ) is the prefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department in the western suburbs of Paris. It is located some northwest of the centre of Paris. In 2018, the commune had a population of 96,807. The eastern part of Nanterre, bordering t ...

Samois-sur-Seine Samois-sur-Seine (, ) is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located near Fontainebleau. Culture It is famous for being the town to which Django Reinhardt retired, and hosts a ...

near Fontainbleau where he died in 2004. The municipal library was renamed La Bibliothèque Lo Duca in his honour.

Selected works

*''La Sphère de platine'' (1927) *''Histoire du cinéma'' (1942) *''La Technique du cinéma'' (1948) *''Le Journal Secret de Napoléon Bonaparte'' (1948) *''L’Histoire de l’Erotisme'' (1961) - ''A History of Eroticism'' (trans.

Kenneth Anger Kenneth Anger (born Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer, February 3, 1927) is an American underground experimental filmmaker, actor, and author. Working exclusively in short films, he has produced almost 40 works since 1937, nine of which have been grouped ...

, 1966) *''Erotique de l'Art'' (1966) *''Dictionnaire de sexologie'' (1972) *''Et si nous parlions des crétins ?'' (1973) *''Les Mines de Sodome'' (2001)

References

Notes

External links

Lo Duca biography
at ''Babelio'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Lo Duca, Joseph-Marie 20th-century births 2004 deaths Italian emigrants to France Military personnel from Milan French film historians Cahiers du Cinéma editors

Biography

Selected works

References

Notes

Further reading

External links