All Films Are Political

Abstract

The polemic initiated between Cinethique and Les Cahiers du Cinema involves, like most polemics, a few ridiculous and paltry aspects that we won't even mention. Its very origins, from what the arguments of the two reviews allow us to guess about them, seem too obscure and ignoble (fear of competition at Les Cahiers? Ill humor on the part of Cin'thique faced with publication by Les Cahiers of Eisenstein's theoretical writings; and the adoption by the latter of the theses of Change, the rival review to Tel Quel whose ties with Cinethique seem close?) for us to dwell on them at any length. What is interesting is that this polemic has induced both publications to state, each from its own side, the bases of a true theory of cinema criticism. And, curiously, while one would expect to see violently antagonistic positions facing off, we find on the contrary, confirmation of the proximity, often extreme, even the coincidence of the points of view that are expressed. This naturally leads each of the editorial staffs to congradulate itself on these convergences, as if it were a question of a rallying to its own assertions. Yet it is right under the circumstances to point out the prior appearance of Cinthique's first