A Short History of Cahiers du cinema

Abstract

Nothing serious by or about Cahiers has been published in English since Jim Hillier's well presented and annotated choice of articles from the 1950s, followed by a more ponderous selection from the period 1961–68.1 So it is useful to have Emilie Bickerton's narrative and polemical account, even if there is something quixotic about attempting a short version of such a complicated and interesting story, without a bibliography, and with proofreading and editorial lapses. Her main sources, apart from the journal itself, seem to be Antoine de Baecque's history of its early years2 and his later book on cinephilia,3 together with material from Cahiers and elsewhere by long-time contributor, and coeditor between 1974 and 1981, Serge Daney,4 and discussion with some surviving contributors. From these she produces a condensed historical outline and a broad point of view. The outline: after a 1930s and 1940s prehistory, the yellow Cahiers of the 1950s articulates its radical belief in cinema as a specific but impure art form and a drive to challenge traditional and aesthetics-free views through the concepts of mise-en-scene and authorship. Between 1959 and 1966 Jacques Rivette and others demand that the magazine's critical range broaden to make more room for the modern world, contemporary intellectual currents, new cinematic forms from a range of sources (such as Antonioni and Buñuel), and openly political content. Some of the contributors make ‘New Wave’ films which become linked in a loose general sense with the reputation of the magazine.