• Wrote during the post-World War II years: 1940s-1958
  • Died in 1958 at age 39
  • The most influential French film critic of that time
• Cahiers du Cinéma
  • "Cahiers" pronounced "cay-yeah"-"cay" rhymes with "tie"
  • Founded April 1951.
  • Edited it until his death.
  • World's most influential film journal in 1950/60's.
  • Birthplace of''Auteur Theory"
    • Critical method which advocates the director as the "author" (in French, auteur) of a film.
  • Home to directors-to-be of the French New Wave (Nouvelle Vague).
    • Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, et al.
• Bazin was best known for his writings on realism.
  • Reacted against mainstream film theory of the 20s and 30s.
    • Which emphasized the ways in which film differs from reality
    • E.g., Soviet montage theories
  • "Evolution of Film Language"
    • Essay collected and published at the time of his death (1958).
    • Traces how film "language" (i.e., film style: mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing) has developed from 1895 to the 1950s.
    • Divides filmmakers into two approaches:
      1. Those who put their "faith in the image"
         • Rooted, initially, in Méliès's attempts to fabricate reality in films.
         • E.g., Impossible Voyage
      2. Those who put their "faith in reality"
         • Rooted, initially, in the Lumière Brothers' mechanical reproduction of reality.
         • E.g., Train Arrives in a Station, Demolition of a Wall, etc.
         • Includes work of Jean Renoir, Orson Welles, and William Wyler.
           • See frame grabs from Renoir and Wyler films.
    • Advocated for a specific type of realism:
      1. Deep focus
      2. Longer takes
      3. Lateral camera movement

Strongly recommended:

Go watch Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons on laserdisc in the Gorgas Library!

Last revised: January 5, 2005 10:36