Gloria Swanson reading Cahiers du cinéma (Mid-1950s)Cahiers du cinéma
Les Cahiers du cinéma is a film review founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca. It took over from the Revue du cinéma, which disappeared in 1949 following the death of its founder, Jean Georges Auriol.
The three founders
André Bazin was already writing for several magazines including Revue du cinéma and was organizing numerous movie clubs. Renowned film theorist, he significantly impacted the French New Wave and his work is studied to this day.
François Truffaut and Jacques Doniol-ValcrozeCahiers du cinéma
Jacques Doniol-Valcroze was also part of Revue du cinéma. He began making movies toward the end of the 1950s, most notably L'Eau à la bouche (Mouth Watering, 1960).
Fritz Lang reading Cahiers du cinéma (Mid-1950s)Cahiers du cinéma
Joseph-Marie Lo Duca was a writer; he was the author of a first science-fiction novel, La sfera di platino (The Platinum Sphere), published in 1927, and the book Le Cinéma d'animation (Animated Cinema, 1948), prefaced by Walt Disney. The image shows a vintage photograph from the 1950s in Hollywood, depicting Fritz Lang reading Cahiers du cinéma issue 44 with journalist Robin Jon Joachim.
"The silence that followed Jean George Auriol's work for his magazine — and that his death deepened — was broken by thousands of questions, coming from all countries. Cahiers sought to answer them. We've followed the patient and inflexible example of our friend. Like him, we want cinema to have a faithful witness to its best and most valuable efforts, wherever they originate from. It is in Cahiers that such testimony can be found, with poise and discipline, and with the faith that cinema deserves. A cinema that, in just a few weeks, knows how to deliver Diary of a Country Priest (France), Christ in Concrete (UK), Story of a Real Man (USSR), Sunset Boulevard (US), Miracle in Milan (Italy), Man och kvinna (A Handful of Rice, Sweden), and The Flowers of St. Francis (Italy) is, to sum it up, cinema." Cahiers du cinéma no. 1, p. 9.
Cahiers du cinéma n°1 - April 1951 (1951-04)Cahiers du cinéma
The first issue of Cahiers du cinéma
The first issue of Cahiers du cinéma, published in April 1951, already had the characteristic yellow color of Cahiers du cinéma — a tribute to Revue du Cinéma — that would forge the graphic identity of the magazine. The placement of an illustration on the cover however was new, and would continue to expand until it took up almost the entire cover in recent issues.
A photo of Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950) illustrates the cover to launch the first magazine. This is the face of the end of a world, of Norma Desmond, a fallen star from silent movies.
This image depicted the very strong relationship between the magazine and American cinema (in particular for the generation of critics who would succeed the founding trio, i.e., those from the New Wave).
Cahiers du cinéma n°775 - April 2021 (2021-04)Cahiers du cinéma
In his graphic creation for the cover of the 70th anniversary issue of Cahiers du cinéma, Bertrand Mandico used this image again.
" 'The angel of cinema history', with bat wings, flies into the future while preserving the memory of the light of the past. She overcomes the meanders and ruins of the present." Bertrand Mandico, issue no. 775 of Cahiers du cinéma.
Hommage Robert Bresson. Supplement to n°543 - February 2000 (2000-02)Cahiers du cinéma
Harbingers
Among the movies in the contents of this first issue were Give Us This Day (1949) by Edward Dmytryk, Diary of a Country Priest (1950) by Robert Bresson (in the image), and The Flowers of St. Francis (1950) by Roberto Rossellini.
Special Edition - The Novel by François Truffaut - December 1984 (1984-12)Cahiers du cinéma
Many of the celebrated writers of Cahiers du cinéma became key figures in the history of cinema and its theory. In 1955, François Truffaut wrote 'Ali Baba and the Politics of Authors', a seminal text on this subject that would be further explored in subsequent articles in the magazine.
The magazine also welcomed important figures in philosophy and the human sciences, such as Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, and Jacques Lacan who found a space for expression and discourse within its pages.
The editor-in-chief of Cahiers du cinéma (2024)Cahiers du cinéma
Today, the Cahiers continues to offer a place for reflection that gives a voice to moviemakers and those creating cinema in its analytical section, as well as the other pages.
Charlotte Garson, deputy editor-in-chief of Cahiers du cinéma (2024)Cahiers du cinéma
The familiar monthly format allows editors to develop the most detailed analysis possible of the issues affecting movies and the world today. Read the story How Do You Create a Cinema Magazine ?
Special Edition – Cinéma 68 – 1998 (1998)Cahiers du cinéma
Find out more
To find out more about Cahiers du cinéma, read about the history of the magazine.
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