(Redirected from Cahiers du Cinéma)'''Cahiers du cinéma''' (''Notebooks on Cinema'') is an influential
French film magazine founded in 1951 by
André Bazin,
Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and
Joseph-Marie Lo Duca. It developed from the earlier magazine ''Revue du Cinéma'' (''Review of the Cinema'') involving members of two Paris film clubs — ''Objectif 49'' (''Objective 49'') (
Robert Bresson,
Jean Cocteau and
Alexandre Astruc, among others) and ''Ciné-Club du Quartier Latin'' (''Cinema Club of the Latin Quarter''). Initially edited by
Éric Rohmer (Maurice Scherer), it included amongst its writers
Jacques Rivette,
Jean-Luc Godard,
Claude Chabrol, and
François Truffaut.
History
''Cahiers'' re-invented the basic tenets of
film criticism and
theory. A 1954 article by Truffaut attacked ''La qualité française'' (the "Tradition of French Quality") and was the manifesto for the
auteur theory — resulting in the re-evaluation of
Hollywood films and directors such as
Alfred Hitchcock,
Howard Hawks,
Robert Aldrich,
Nicholas Ray,
Fritz Lang, and
Anthony Mann. ''Cahiers du Cinema'' authors also championed the work of directors
Jean Renoir,
Roberto Rossellini,
Kenji Mizoguchi,
Max Ophüls, and
Jean Cocteau, by centering their critical evaluations on a film's
mise en scène. The magazine also was essential to the creation of the ''
Nouvelle Vague'', or New Wave, of French cinema, which centered on films directed by ''Cahiers'' authors such as Godard and Truffaut.
Jacques Rivette's editorial replacement of Rohmer in 1963 was a shift to political and social concerns and in paying more attention to non-Hollywood films. The style 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 editorial collective. In the mid-1970s, a review of the movie
Jaws marked the magazine's return to more commercial perspectives, and an editorial turnover: (
Serge Daney,
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 names like
Manoel de Oliveira,
Raoul Ruiz,
Hou Hsiao-Hsien,
Youssef Chahine, and
Maurice Pialat. Recent writers have included
Serge Daney, Serge Toubiana, Thierry Jousse, Antoine de Baecque, Vincent Ostria, Charles Tesson and
Franck Nouchi,
André Téchiné,
Léos Carax,
Olivier Assayas,
Danièle Dubroux, and
Serge Le Péron.
In 1994, filmmaker
Mike White began publishing the parody magazine ''
Cashiers du Cinemart''. It continues being published today.
In 1998, the Editions de l'Etoile (the company publishing ''Cahiers'') was acquired by the press group ''
Le Monde''. 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 approach. This version of the magazine printed ill-received opinion pieces on
reality TV or
video games that confused the traditional readership of the magazine.
Due to poor results of the new version of ''Les Cahiers'', ''Le Monde'' took full editorial control of the magazine in 2003. The then editor-in-chief of "Le Monde" film pages,
Jean-Michel Frodon became editor-in-chief of ''Les Cahiers'' and put together a new writers team which is currently in charge of the magazine.
External links
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Official website
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Archives
★
Top 10 list (for years 1951, 1955–1968, 1981–2002)