André Bazin

André Bazin (French: [bazɛ̃]; 18 April 1918 – 11 November 1958) was a renowned and influential French film critic and film theorist.

André Bazin
André Bazin on the cover of the third volume of the original edition of Qu'est-ce que le cinéma?
Born(1918-04-18)18 April 1918
Angers, France
Died11 November 1958(1958-11-11) (aged 40)
Nogent-sur-Marne, France
NationalityFrench
Alma materEcole Normale Supérieure de Saint-Cloud
OccupationFilm critic, film theorist

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 and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca.

He is notable for arguing that realism is the most important function of cinema.[1] His call for objective reality, deep focus, and lack of montage[2] are linked to his 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.

Life

Bazin was born in Angers, France, in 1918. He met future film and television producer Janine while working at Labour and Culture, a militant organization associated with the French Communist party during WWII and eventually they both married in 1949 with a son named Florent afterwards.[3] He died in 1958, age 40, of leukemia.[4]

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 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 this collection 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 were never 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.[5]

The long-held standard view of Bazin's critical system[6] is that he argued for films that depicted what he saw as "objective reality" (such as documentaries[7] and films of the Italian neorealism school or as he called it "the Italian school of the Liberation"[8]). He advocated the use of deep focus (Orson Welles)[9], 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. This placed him in opposition to film theory of the 1920s and 1930s, which emphasized how the cinema could 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. He watched film as personally as he expected the director to undertake it. His personal friendships with many directors he wrote about also furthered his analysis of their work. He became a central figure not only in film critique, but in bringing about certain collaborations, as well. Bazin also preferred long takes to montage editing. He believed that less was more, and that narrative was key to great film.

Bazin, who was influenced by personalism[10], believed 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, William Wyler and John Ford.

Bibliography

In English
  • Bazin, André. (2018). André Bazin: Selected Writings 1943-1958 (Timothy Barnard, Trans.) Montreal: caboose, ISBN 978-1-927852-05-7
  • Bazin, André. (1967–71). What is cinema? Vol. 1 & 2 (Hugh Gray, Trans., Ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-02034-0
  • Bazin, André. (1973). Jean Renoir (François Truffaut, Ed.; W.W. Halsey II & William H. Simon, Trans.). New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-21464-0
  • Bazin, André. (1978). Orson Welles: a critical view. New York: Harper and Row. ISBN 0-06-010274-8
  • Andrew, Dudley. André Bazin. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978. ISBN 0-19-502165-7
  • 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. ISBN 0-8044-2022-X
  • Bazin, André. (1982). The cinema of cruelty: From Buñuel to Hitchcock (François Truffaut, Ed.; Sabine d'Estrée, Trans.). New York: Seaver Books. ISBN 0-394-51808-X
  • 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 0-415-90017-4 (PB) ISBN 0-415-90018-2
  • Bazin, André. (Forthcoming). French cinema from the liberation to the New Wave, 1945-1958 (Bert Cardullo, Ed.)

In French

References
  1. Dudley Andrew, The Major Film Theories: An Introduction, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1976, Part II.
  2. Divining the real: the leaps of faith in André Bazin’s film criticism|Sight & Sound|BFI
  3. Obituary: Janine Bazin|Film|The Guardian
  4. "Andre Bazin dies". Focus Features. Archived from the original on 18 January 2015. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
  5. "André Bazin: Selected Writings 1943–1958". Caboosebooks.net. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  6. An Analysis of Film Critic Andre Bazin's Views on Expressionism and Realism in Film - Inquiries Journal
  7. Oxford Bibliographies
  8. Review: What is Cinema? by André Bazin|Film Quarterly
  9. Bazin Andre What Is Cinema Volume 1 (pg.33): Internet Archive
  10. Citizen Kane, André Bazin and "The Holy Moment" - Decent Films
  11. BFI
  12. Cosmic Babble: Waking Life|Richard Linklater

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.

Online essays
Media offices
Preceded by
 Editor of Cahiers du cinéma
1951–1958		 Succeeded by
Éric Rohmer
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