French Film Theory and Criticism, Volume 1: A History/Anthology, 1907-1939. Volume 1: 1907-1929 (French Film Theory & Criticism) - Softcover

Abel, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 069100062X ISBN 13: 9780691000626

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1993

Synopsis

These two volumes examine a significant but previously neglected moment in French cultural history: the emergence of French film theory and criticism before the essays of André Bazin. Richard Abel has devised an organizational scheme of six nearly symmetrical periods that serve to "bite into" the discursive flow of early French writing on the cinema. Each of the periods is discussed in a separate and extensive historical introduction, with convincing explications of the various concepts current at the time. In each instance, Abel goes on to provide a complementary anthology of selected texts in translation. Amounting to a portable archive, these anthologies make available a rich selection of nearly one hundred and fifty important texts, most of them never before published in English.

About this title

Review:

This first volume of what the author calls a "history/anthology" of French film theory and criticism covers the years 1907-1929. In these two decades, France produced some of the most extraordinary films of all time: Georges Mèliés, René Clair, and Abel Gance, director of Napoleon, were all in their heyday. In a series of essays interspersed with generous excerpts from his primary sources, Richard Abel demonstrates that these filmmakers, along with writers like Jean Cocteau, Antonin Artaud, and even Colette, engaged in fascinating critical debates about the meaning, the sociology, and the politics of their burgeoning national art. This is the only book in English to collect these writers' ideas on the movies. It is invaluable reading for anyone interested in the early history or modern theory of cinema.

About the Author:

Richard Abel is Professor of English at Drake University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 069100062X
• ISBN 13: 9780691000626
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 484