French film criticism
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Since the inception of cinema, France has been a leading nation of cinephilia and film criticism.
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Early French film magazines
Early periodicals destined to the cinephile and cultivated public included Cinéa, created in 1921 by Louis Delluc, La Gazette des sept arts (1922-1924) by Ricciotto Canudo, Photo-ciné (1927-1929) and the short-lived Cinégraphie (1927-1928), edited and illustrated by Jean Dréville, with contributions by Alberto Cavalcanti, Germaine Dulac and Jean Epstein. These magazines were concerned with giving the nascent medium an air of respectability and defend avant-garde film.
Post-World War II
In the Post-World War II critical magazine Cahiers du cinéma founded by André Bazin, critics and lovers of film would discuss film and why it worked. Modern film theory was born there. Additionally, Cahiers critics such as Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, etc. went on to make films themselves, creating what was to become known as the French New Wave. Some of the first movies of this new genre was Godard's Breathless (À bout de souffle, 1960), starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and - the leading movie - Truffaut's The 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cent Coups, 1959) starring Jean-Pierre Léaud.
1960s and 1970s
Eric Losfeld was the publisher of two film magazines (Midi Minuit Fantastique and Positif).
See also
