André Bazin on the cover of the third volume of the original edition of Qu'est-ce que le cinéma?

André Bazin (April 18, 1918 – November 11, 1958) was a renowned and influential French film critic and film theorist. Events 1025 - Bolesław Chrobry is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland. Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 308 - The Congress of Carnuntum: Attempting to keep peace within the Roman Empire, the leaders of the Tetrarchy declare Year 1958 ( MCMLVIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Film review redirects here for the similar sounding Film revue please visit Revue#Film revues. Film theory debates the essence of the cinema and provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to Reality, the other Arts individual

Biography

Bazin was born in Angers, France, in 1918. Angers is a city in the Maine-et-Loire department in northwestern France about 300 km south-west of Paris. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. He started to write about film in 1943 and was a co-founder of the film magazine Cahiers du cinéma in 1951, along with Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Lo Duca. Year 1943 ( MCMXLIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Cahiers du cinéma ( Notebooks on Cinema;) is an influential French Film Magazine founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Year 1951 ( MCMLI) was a Common year starting on Monday. Events of 1951 January

Film criticism

Bazin was a major force in post-World War II film studies and criticism. In addition to editing Cahiers until his death, a four-volume collection of his writings was published posthumously from 1958 to 1962 and titled Qu'est-ce que le cinéma? (What is Cinema?). Two of these volumes were translated into English in the late 1960s and 1970s and became mainstays of film courses in the US and England.

Bazin argued for films that depicted what he saw as "objective reality" (such as documentaries and films of the Italian neorealism school) and directors who made themselves "invisible" (such as Howard Hawks). Italian neorealism is a style of film characterized by stories set amongst the poor and Working class, filmed on location frequently using nonprofessional Actors Howard Winchester Hawks ( May 30, 1896 &ndash December 26, 1977) was an American Film director, producer and He advocated the use of deep focus (Orson Welles), wide shots (Jean Renoir) 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. Deep focus George Orson Welles (May 6 1915 – October 10 1985 was an Academy Award -winning director, writer actor and producer for film stage radio and television Jean Renoir (French ʁəˈnwaʁ ( September 15, 1894 – February 12, 1979) born in the Montmartre district of Paris Mise-en-scène (mizɑ̃sɛn is an expression used in the theatre and film worlds to describe the design aspects of a production This placed him in opposition to film theory of the 1920s and 1930s which emphasized how the cinema can manipulate reality. 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. A montage sequence is a technique in Film editing in which a series of short shots is edited into a sequence to condense narrative

Bazin believed that a film should represent a director's personal vision, rooted in the spiritual beliefs known as personalism. Personalism is the school of thought that consists of three main principles and which can broadly be qualified as species of Humanism: Only persons are real (in These ideas would have a pivotal importance on the development of the Auteur theory, which originated in an article by Truffaut in Cahiers. Bazin also is known as a proponent of "appreciative criticism," wherein only critics who like a film can write a review of it, thus encouraging constructive criticism.

Bazin in pop culture

• Truffaut dedicated The 400 Blows to Bazin, who died one day after shooting commenced on the film. The 400 Blows ( Les Quatre Cents Coups) is a 1959 French film directed by François Truffaut.
• Richard Linklater's film Waking Life features a discussion between Filmmaker Caveh Zahedi and poet David Jewell regarding some of Bazin's film theories. Richard Stuart Linklater (born July 30, 1960) is an Academy Award -nominated American Film director and Screenwriter Waking Life is a digitally enhanced live action rotoscoped film directed by Richard Linklater and made in 2001. Caveh Zahedi (born on April 29 1960) is an American Film director and Actor of Iranian descent David Jewell (1934 – 2006 was a prominent British Independent school headmaster during the late 20th century There is an emphasis on Bazin's Christianity and the belief that every shot is a representation of God manifesting creation. Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity.
• Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt (Le Mépris) (1963) opens with a quotation wrongly attributed to Bazin (in fact the author of the quotation is French film critic and playwright Michel Mourlet from his article "Sur un art ignoré" in Cahiers du cinéma, no. Jean-Luc Godard (French ʒɑ̃lyk gɔˈdaʀ (born on December 3 1930 is a French and Swiss Filmmaker and one of the founding members of the Nouvelle Vague Contempt ( Le Mépris) is a film directed by Jean-Luc Godard, based on the Italian novel Il disprezzo ( by Alberto Moravia. Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Cahiers du cinéma ( Notebooks on Cinema;) is an influential French Film Magazine founded in 1951 by André Bazin, 98).
• David Foster Wallace's novel Infinite Jest references Bazin in regards to film and film criticism.

Bibliography

In English:

• Bazin, André. (1967-71). What is cinema? Vol. 1 & 2 (Hugh Gray, Trans. , Ed. ). Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0520020340
• Bazin, André. (1973). Jean Renoir (Francois Truffaut, Ed. ; W. W. Halsey II & William H. Simon, Trans. ). New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0671214640
• Bazin, André. (1978). Orson Welles: a critical view. New York: Harper and Row. ISBN 0060102748
• Bazin, André. (1981). French cinema of the occupation and resistance: The birth of a critical esthetic (Francois Truffaut, Ed. , Stanley Hochman, Trans. ). New York: F. Ungar Pub. Co. ISBN 080442022X
• Bazin, André. (1982). The cinema of cruelty: From Buñuel to Hitchcock (Francois Truffaut, Ed. ; Sabine d'Estrée, Trans. ). New York: Seaver Books. ISBN 039451808X
• 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) ISBN 0415900174 (PB) ISBN 0415900182
• Bazin, André. (Forthcoming). French cinema from the liberation to the New Wave, 1945-1958 (Bert Cardullo, Ed. )

In French:

• La politique des auteurs, edited by André Bazin. Interviews with Robert Bresson, Jean Renoir, Luis Buñuel, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, Orson Welles, Michelangelo Antonioni, Carl Theodor Dreyer and Roberto Rossellini
• Qu'est-ce que le cinéma?, by André Bazin, originally published 1958-1962. Jean Renoir (French ʁəˈnwaʁ ( September 15, 1894 – February 12, 1979) born in the Montmartre district of Paris Luis Buñuel Portolés (22 February 1900 &ndash 29 July 1983 was a Spanish -born Filmmaker and naturalized Mexican who worked mainly in Mexico Howard Winchester Hawks ( May 30, 1896 &ndash December 26, 1977) was an American Film director, producer and Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE (13 Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang ( December 5, 1890 &ndash August 2, 1976) was an Austrian German - American George Orson Welles (May 6 1915 – October 10 1985 was an Academy Award -winning director, writer actor and producer for film stage radio and television Michelangelo Antonioni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI ( September 29 1912 &ndash July 30 2007) was an Italian Modernist Carl Theodor Dreyer Jr ( February 3, 1889 - March 20, 1968) was a Danish Film director. Roberto Rossellini ( May 8 1906 – June 3 1977) was an Italian Film director. New edition: Les Éditions du CERF, 2003.

External links

• André Bazin : An Unofficial Tribute to The World-Renowned Film Critic and Film Theorist
• André Bazin - Divining the real (page on BFI)
• André Bazin: Part 1, Film Style Theory in its Historical Context
• André Bazin: Part 2, Style as a Philosophical Idea
• André Bazin at the Internet Movie Database

Online essays

• "The Life and Death of Superimposition" (1946)
• "Will CinemaScope Save the Film Industry?" (1953)
• Andre Bazin on Rene Clement and literary adaptation: Two original reviews
• Andre Bazin on Claude Autant-Lara and literary adaptation: Four original reviews

See also

• 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.