Des films muets aux films parlants. Naissance de la qualité cinématographique

Abstract

From Silent Films to « Talkies »: The Birth of the Cinematographic Quality in France during the Interwar Period Fabrice Montebello The identification of motion picture industry as a "national wealth" at the beginnung of the twenties, went with the transformation of the film, from a good sold by the metre (used mainly by public houses, music-halls, third-rate theatres, popular cafes) to a cultural object, praised as a means of a quality entertainement, morally unquestionable. This changing operated through the implementation and diffusion, under the joined pressure of the State, the professionals and the audience, of instruments of measurement of the cinematographic quality (censorhip certificate, film nationality, standard play, cinema performance, moral ratings, reviews, artistic and historical categories). It has been made possible by the progressive substitution of the talking movies market to the silent films market and by the national standardisation of the cinema entertainement which resulted from it.