André Bazin (; 18 April 1918 – 11 November 1958) was a renowned and influential French
film critic
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: Academic criticism by film scholars, who study the composition of film theory and publish their findin ...
and
film theorist. He started to write about movies in 1943 and was a co-founder of the renowned
film magazine ''
Cahiers du cinéma'' in 1951 alongside
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.
He is notable for arguing that
realism is the most important function of cinema. His call for objective reality in film, as understood through the use of
deep focus
Deep focus is a photographic and cinematographic technique using a large depth of field. Depth of field is the front-to-back range of focus (optics), focus in an image, or how much of it appears sharp and clear. In deep focus, the foreground, midd ...
as well as the lack of
montage,
were linked to his belief that the interpretation of an entire movie or a specific scene should be left to the spectator. This placed him in opposition to prior film theorists, such as many writing during the 1920s and 1930s, who had emphasized how the cinema could manipulate reality. Bazin insisted that movies morally should serve as personalized projects by their
directors to the degree that each and every one represents a director's individual vision, which reflected his broader
psychological
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
and
philosophical
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
beliefs about culture and the arts.
Although his death in his forties, occurring in the middle of his writing
career
A career is an individual's metaphorical "journey" through learning, work (human activity), work and other aspects of personal life, life. There are a number of ways to define career and the term is used in a variety of ways.
Definitions
The ...
, kept him from witnessing the seminal works in the
French New Wave
The New Wave (, ), also called the French New Wave, is a French European art cinema, art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentat ...
period firsthand, Bazin's viewpoints exercised a large influence on those filmmakers. For instance,
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. He came under the tutelage of film critic Andre Bazin as a ...
dedicated the movie ''
The 400 Blows'', a work released in May 1959 that has been
one of the films regarded as the greatest ever made in European history, to Bazin.
Life
André Bazin was born in
Angers
Angers (, , ;) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the Prefectures of France, prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Duchy of Anjou, Anjou until the French Revolution. The i ...
, France on 18 April 1918. After graduating from the
École normale supérieure
École or Ecole may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...
at
Saint-Cloud in 1941, he pursued a career as a teacher, but was denied a teaching post due to his stammer. He then took part in the student organisation ''Maison des Lettres'' in Paris, where he founded a ciné-club during the
German occupation of Paris.
[ Bazin met future film and television producer Janine Kirsch while working at Labour and Culture, a militant organization associated with the ]French Communist Party
The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...
during the war. They married in 1949 and had a son named Florent. Bazin was diagnosed with leukemia in 1954. He died at Nogent-sur-Marne on 11 November 1958, at the age of 40.[
]
Film criticism
Bazin started to write about film in 1943 and was a co-founder of the renowned film magazine '' Cahiers du cinéma'' in 1951, along with 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. Bazin was a major force in post-World War II film studies and criticism. He edited ''Cahiers'' until his death, and a four-volume collection of his writings was published posthumously, covering the years 1958 to 1962 and titled ''Qu'est-ce que le cinéma?'' (''What is cinema?'').
A selection from ''What Is Cinema?'' was translated into English and published in two volumes in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They became mainstays of film courses in the English-speaking world, but never were updated or revised. In 2009, the Canadian publisher Caboose, taking advantage of more favourable Canadian copyright laws, compiled fresh translations of some of the key essays from the collection in a single-volume edition. With annotations by translator Timothy Barnard, this became the only corrected and annotated edition of these writings in any language. In 2018, this volume was replaced by a more extensive collection of Bazin's texts translated by Barnard, ''André Bazin: Selected Writings 1943–1958''. A new collection of Bazin's essays were released in 2022 under the title ''André Bazin on Adaptation: Cinema's Literary Imagination''.
The long-held view of Bazin's critical system is that he argued for films that depicted "objective reality" (such as documentaries and films of the Italian neorealism school or as he called it "the Italian school of the Liberation"). He advocated the use of deep focus
Deep focus is a photographic and cinematographic technique using a large depth of field. Depth of field is the front-to-back range of focus (optics), focus in an image, or how much of it appears sharp and clear. In deep focus, the foreground, midd ...
(Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...
, William Wyler
William Wyler (; born Willi Wyler (); July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981) was a German-born American film director and producer. Known for his work in numerous genres over five decades, he received numerous awards and accolades, including three Aca ...
), wide shots (Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir (; 15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. His '' La Grande Illusion'' (1937) and '' The Rules of the Game'' (1939) are often cited by critics as among the greate ...
) and the "shot-in-depth", and preferred what he referred to as "true continuity" through '' mise-en-scène'' over experiments in editing and visual effects. For example, he extensively analyzes a scene in Wyler's ''The Best Years of Our Lives
''The Best Years of Our Lives'' (also known as ''Glory for Me'' and ''Home Again'') is a 1946 American drama film directed by William Wyler and starring Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo and Harold Ru ...
'' (with cinematography by Gregg Toland) to illuminate the function of deep-focus composition:
The concentration on objective reality, deep focus, and lack of montage are linked to Bazin's belief that the interpretation of a film or scene should be left to the spectator. This placed him in opposition to film theory of the 1920s and 1930s, which emphasized how the cinema could manipulate reality.
According to Dudley Andrew, Roman Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
and Personalism are two strong influences on Bazin's outlook of cinema. Victor Bruno says that these influences—especially Roman Catholicism—are the wellspring from which flows the essence of Bazin's understanding of "realism," which, according to him, is more closely linked with metaphysical
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of h ...
realism than with corporeality (also called realism by certain scholars).
Another academic, Tom Gunning, identifies yet a third influence on André Bazin: Hegelianism
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...
. According to Gunning, Bazin's preference for the long take
In filmmaking, a long take (also called a continuous take, continuous shot, or oner) is Shot (filmmaking), shot with a duration much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general. Significant camera mov ...
is akin to Hegel's understanding of the unfolding of history in time. This idea has been dismissed by certain authors, since Bazin privileged the long take as a means of liberty and Hegel understood that the unfolding of history would conclude in a perfectly systematized paradigm.
At any rate, Bazin's personalism led him to believe that a film should represent a director's personal vision. This idea had a pivotal importance in the development of the auteur theory, the manifesto for which François Truffaut's article "A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema" was published by his mentor Bazin in ''Cahiers'' in 1954. Bazin also championed directors like Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896December 26, 1977) was an American film director, Film producer, producer, and screenwriter of the Classical Hollywood cinema, classic Hollywood era. Critic Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American ...
, William Wyler
William Wyler (; born Willi Wyler (); July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981) was a German-born American film director and producer. Known for his work in numerous genres over five decades, he received numerous awards and accolades, including three Aca ...
and John Ford
John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), better known as John Ford, was an American film director and producer. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers during the Golden Age of Hollywood, and w ...
.
Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir (; 15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. His '' La Grande Illusion'' (1937) and '' The Rules of the Game'' (1939) are often cited by critics as among the greate ...
famously wrote, looking back in retrospect, that he viewed Bazin as the one who "gave the patent or royalty to the cinema just as the poets of the past had crowned their kings".
In popular culture
*François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. He came under the tutelage of film critic Andre Bazin as a ...
dedicated '' The 400 Blows'' to Bazin, who died one day after shooting began on the film.
*Richard Linklater
Richard Linklater (; born July 30, 1960) is an American filmmaker. He is known for making films that deal thematically with suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. In 2015, Linklater was included on the annual ''Time'' 100 li ...
's film '' Waking Life'' features a discussion between filmmaker Caveh Zahedi and poet David Jewell regarding some of Bazin's film theories. There is an emphasis on Bazin's Christianity and the belief that every shot is a representation of God manifested in creation.
Bibliography
In English
* Bazin, André. (2018). ''André Bazin: Selected Writings 1943–1958'' (Timothy Barnard, Trans.) Montreal: caboose,
* Bazin, André. (1967–1971). ''What is cinema? Vol. 1 & 2'' (Hugh Gray, Trans., Ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press.
* Bazin, André. (1973). ''Jean Renoir'' (François Truffaut, Ed.; W.W. Halsey II & William H. Simon, Trans.). New York: Simon and Schuster.
* Bazin, André. (1978). ''Orson Welles: a critical view''. New York: Harper and Row.
* Andrew, Dudley. ''André Bazin.'' New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.
* Bazin, André. (1981). ''French cinema of the occupation and resistance: The birth of a critical esthetic'' (François Truffaut, Ed., Stanley Hochman, Trans.). New York: F. Ungar Pub. Co.
* Bazin, André. (1982). ''The cinema of cruelty: From Buñuel to Hitchcock'' (François Truffaut, Ed.; Sabine d'Estrée, Trans.). New York: Seaver Books.
* Bazin, André. (1985). ''Essays on Chaplin'' (Jean Bodon, Trans., Ed.). New Haven, Conn.: University of New Haven Press. LCCN 84-52687
* Bazin, André. (1996). ''Bazin at work: Major essays & reviews from the forties and fifties'' (Bert Cardullo, Ed., Trans.; Alain Piette, Trans.). New York: Routledge. (HB) (PB)
* Bazin, André. (2005). ''French cinema from the liberation to the New Wave, 1945–1958'' (Bert Cardullo, Ed.) Peter Lang Pub Inc. . UNO Press, University of New Orleans Press, ew Orleans, La. ©2012,
In French
*''La politique des auteurs'', edited by André Bazin. Interviews with Robert Bresson
Robert Bresson (; 25 September 1901 – 18 December 1999) was a French film director. Known for his ascetic approach, Bresson made a notable contribution to the art of cinema; his non-professional actors, Ellipsis (narrative device), ellipses, an ...
, Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir (; 15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. His '' La Grande Illusion'' (1937) and '' The Rules of the Game'' (1939) are often cited by critics as among the greate ...
, Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish and Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians and directors to be one of the greatest and ...
, Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896December 26, 1977) was an American film director, Film producer, producer, and screenwriter of the Classical Hollywood cinema, classic Hollywood era. Critic Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American ...
, Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. 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 featu ...
, Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang (), was an Austrian-born film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety Obituari ...
, Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...
, Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni ( ; ; 29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and editor. He is best known for his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents", ''L'Avventura'' (1960), ''La Notte'' (1961), and '' ...
, Carl Theodor Dreyer
Carl Theodor Dreyer (; 3 February 1889 – 20 March 1968), commonly known as Carl Th. Dreyer, was a Danish film director and screenwriter. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers in history, his movies are noted for emotional austerity ...
and Roberto Rossellini
*''Qu'est-ce que le cinéma?'' (4 vols.), by André Bazin, originally published 1958–1962 (1958, 1959, 1961, 1962). New edition: Les Éditions du Cerf, 2003.
*''André Bazin – Écrits complets'' (2 vol.), éditions Macula, 2018
See also
* Invisible auditor
*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 ...
* Joseph-Marie Lo Duca
* Media criticism
**Film criticism
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: Academic criticism by film studies, film scholars, who study the composition of film theory and publish ...
** Television criticism
References
Further reading
*The André Bazin Special Issue, ''Film International'', No. 30 (November 2007), Jeffrey Crouse, guest editor. Essays include those by Charles Warren ("What is Criticism?"), Richard Armstrong ("''The Best Years of Our Lives'': Planes of Innocence and Experience"), William Rothman ("Bazin as a Cavellian Realist"), Mats Rohdin ("Cinema as an Art of Potential Metaphors: The Rehabilitation of Metaphor in André Bazin's Realist Film Theory"), Karla Oeler ("André Bazin and the Preservation of Loss"), Tom Paulus ("The View across the Courtyard: Bazin and the Evolution of Depth Style"), and Diane Stevenson ("Godard and Bazin"). Introductory essay, "Because We Need Him Now: Re-enchanting Film Studies Through Bazin," written by Jeffrey Crouse.
External links
Archaism and Hegel in the Supply Reel – A Philosophical Look at André Bazin's Realism (article on ''In Media Res'')
André Bazin – Divining the real (page on BFI)
* ttp://horschamp.qc.ca/new_offscreen/bazin_intro2.html André Bazin: Part 2, Style as a Philosophical Idea*
Online essays
''What Is Cinema'' Vol. 1and 2 on Internet Archive
"The Life and Death of Superimposition" (1946)
"Will CinemaScope Save the Film Industry?" (1953)
André Bazin on René Clement and literary adaptation: Two original reviews
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bazin, Andre
1918 births
1958 deaths
Film theorists
French film critics
French Roman Catholics
People from Angers
20th-century French male writers
École Normale Supérieure alumni
Cahiers du Cinéma editors
Deaths from leukemia in France