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

477 Pages·1988·29.29 MB·English

by  Richard Abel

FRENCH FILM
THEORY AND
CRITICISM
A HISTORY/ANTHOLOGY
1 9 0 7 - 1 9 3 9 ~ Richard Abel
Volume
1: 1907-1929
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS/ PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
COPYRIGHT © I 988 BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
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A Barbara, encore une fois
What was a Heffalump like?
Was it Fierce?
Did it come when you whistled? And how did it come?
Was it Fond of Pigs at all?
If it was Fond of Pigs, did it make any difference what sort of Pig?
Supposing it was Fierce with Pigs, would it make any difference if the
Pig had a grandfather called TRESPASSERS WILLIAM?
Piglet didn't know the answer to any of these questions . . . and he
was going to see his first Heffalump in about an hour from now!
Of course Pooh would be with him, and it was much more Friendly
with two. But suppose Heffalumps were Very Fierce with Pigs and Bears?
A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh, 1926

Contents
Note on Notes, x Preface, xiii Acknowledgments, xxiii
PART ONE: 1907-1914
Before the Canon 5
Selected Texts 35
Georges Melies, "Cinematographic Views" (1907), 35
Remy de Gourmont, "Epilogues: Cinematograph" (1907), 47
Adolphe Brisson, "Theater Column: L'Assassinat du Due de Guise"
(1908), 50
Jules Romains, "The Crowd at the Cinematograph" (1911), 53
(Louis Feuillade}, "Scenes de la vie telle qu'elle est" ( 191 1 ), 54
VictorinJasset, "An Essay on Mise-en-scene in Cinematography"
(1911), 55
Ricciotto Canudo, "The Birth of a Sixth Art" (1911), 58
Abel Gance, "A Sixth Art" (1912), 66
Yhcam, "Cinematography" (1912), 67
Louis Haugmard, "The 'Aesthetic' of the Cinematograph" (1913), 77
Rene Doumic, "Drama Review: The Cinema Age" (1913), 86
Maurice Raynal, "Cinema Column: Fantomas" (1914), 89
Leopold Survage, "Colored Rhythm" (1914), 90
PART TWO: 1915-1919
Photogenie and Company 95
Selected Texts 125
Jacques de Baroncelli, "Pantomime, Music, Cinema" (1915), 125
Colette, "Cinema: The Cheat" (1917), 128
Paul Souday, "On the Cinema" (1916), 129
Emile Vuillermoz, "Before the Screen" (1916), 131
Emile Vuillermoz, "Before the Screen: Les Freres corses" (1917), 132
Colette, "Film Criticism: Mater Dolorosa" (1917), 136
Louis Delluc, "Beauty in the Cinema" (1917), 137
Louis Delluc, "Antoine at Work" (1917), 140
Philippe Soupault, "Note 1 on the Cinema" (1918), 142
Louis Delluc, "Notes to Myself: La Dixieme Symphonie" (1918), 143
Vil
CONTENTS
Marcel L'Herbier, "Hermes and Silence" (1918), 147
Emile Vuillermoz, "Before the Screen: Hermes and Silence"
(1918), 155
Louis Delluc, "The Crowd" (1918), 159
Louis Aragon, "On Decor" (1918), 165
Emile Vuillermoz, "Before the Screen: La Dixieme Symphonie"
(1918), 168
Louis Delluc, "Cinema: The Cold Deck" (1919), 17 l
Jean Cocteau, "Carte Blanche" (1919), 172
Marcel Gromaire, "A Painter's Ideas about the Cinema" (1919), 174
Blaise Cendrars, "The Modern: A New Art, the Cinema" (1919), 182
Henri Diamant-Berger, "The Scenario" (1919), 183
Henri Diamant-Berger, "The Decoupage" (1919), 185
Louis Delluc, "Cinema: The Outlaw and His Wife" (1919), 188
Andre Antoine, "A Proposal on the Cinema" (1919), 189
PART THREE: 1920-1924
Cinegraphie and the Search for Specificity 195
Selected Texts 224
Louis Feuillade, "Introduction," Barrabas {1920) and Les Deux
Gamines {1921), 224
Emile Vuillermoz, "Before the Screen: Aesthetic" (1920), 225•
Louis Delluc, "Cadence" (1920), 228
Leon Moussinac, "Cinema: Broken Blossoms" (1921), 229
Jean Epstein, "Magnification" (1921), 235
Jean Epstein, "The Senses 1 (b)'' ( 192 1) , 24 l
Lionel Landry, "El Dorado" (1921), 246
Leon Moussinac, "Cinema: Fievre, L'Atlantide, El Dorado" (1921), 249
Louis Delluc, "From Orestes to Rio Jim" (1921), 255
Elie Faure, "The Art ofCineplastics" (1922), 258
Lionel Landry, "Caligarism or the Theater's Revenge" (1922), 268
Blaise Cendrars, "On The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari" ( 1922), 2 7 l
Fernand Leger, "La Roue: Its Plastic Quality" (1922), 27 l
Emile Vuillermoz, "La Roue" (1923), 274
Rene Clair, "La Roue" (1923), 279
Leon Moussinac, "On Cinegraphic Rhythm" (1923), 280
Robert Desnos, "Dream and Cinema" (1923), 283
Louis Delluc, "Prologue" (1923), 285
Ricciotto Canudo, "Reflections on the Seventh Art" {1923), 291
Rene Clair, "Coeur fide/e" (1924), 303
Vilt
CONTENTS
Germaine Dulac, "The Expressive Techniques of the Cinema"
(1924), 305
Jean Epstein, "On Certain Characteristics of Photogenie" ( 1924), 314
PART FOUR: 1925-1929
The Great Debates 321
Selected Texts 349
•1ean Epstein, "For a New Avant-Garde" (1925), 349
'Jean Goudal, "Surrealism and Cinema" (1925), 353
Paul Ramain, "The Influence of Dream on the Cinema" (1925), 362
Jacques Feyder, "Visual Transpositions" (1925), 364
Rene Clair, "Rhythm" (1925), 368
'Rene Clair, "Pure Cinema and Commercial Cinema" (1925), 370
Henri Chomette, "Second Stage" (1925), 371
Fernand Leger, "Painting and Cinema" (1925), 372
Henri Fescourt and Jean-Louis Bouquet, Idea and Screen: Opinions
on the Cinema, vol. l (1925), 373
Henri Fescourt and Jean-Louis Bouquet, Idea and Screen: Opinions
on the Cinema, vol. 3 (1926), 384
Pierre Porte, "Pure Cinema" (1926), 385
Germaine Dulac, "Aesthetics, Obstacles, Integral Cinegraphie"
(1926), 389
Robert Desnos, "Fantomas, Les Vampires, Les Mysteres de New York"
(1927), 398
Abel Gance, "My Napoleon" (1927), 400
Emile Vuillermoz,"Napo/eon" (1927), 401
Emile Vuillermoz, "Abel Gance and Napoleon" (1927), 403
Jean Prevost, "The Cinema: Metropolis" (1927), 408
Antonin Artaud, "Cinema and Reality" (1927), 410
Jean Epstein, "Art of Incidence" (1927), 412
Leon Moussinac, "Cinema: Social Expression" (1927), 414
Leon Moussinac, "Eisenstein" (1928), 417
Leon Moussinac, "The Question of the 'Avant-Garde' Film"
(1928), 420
Jean Epstein, "Fragments of Sky" (1928), 421
Jean Epstein, "Approaches to Truth" (1928), 422
Leon Moussinac, "Technique and the Future" (1929), 425
• Robert Desnos, "Avant-Garde Cinema" (1929), 429
Robert Aron, "Films of Revolt" (1929), 432
Index, 437
IX
Note on Notes
NOTES to the preface and the critical essays introducing each of the four
parts of this book appear immediately following the preface and each essay.
Notes to the anthology selections immediately follow each selection. The
anthology notes are mine unless otherwise indicated: those written by the
author of the selection are marked Au; those by the translator, if other than
myself, are marked TRANS.
Explanations, analyses, interpretations, are no more than frames or lenses
to help the spectator focus his attention more sharply on the work. The
only justification for criticism is that it allows us to see more clearly.
John Berger, About Looking (1980)
{History} has taken as its primary task, not the interpretation of the
document, not the attempt to decide whether it is telling the truth or
what is its expressive value, but to work on it from within and to develop
it: history now organizes the document, divides it up, distributes it,
orders it, arranges it in levels, establishes series, distinguishes between
what is relevant and what is not, discovers elements, defines unities,
describes relations. The document, then, is no longer for history an inert
material through which it tries to reconstitute what men have done or
said, the event of which only the trace remains; history is now trying to
define within the documentary material itself unities, totalities, series,
relations. . . . history is one way in which a society recognizes and
develops a mass of documentation with which it is inextricably linked.
Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969)
As for me, I wanted to see the film as close up as possible. I had learned in
the equalitarian discomfort of the neighborhood {cinemas} that this new
art was mine, just as it was everyone else's. We had the same mental age:
I was seven and knew how to read; it was twelve and did not know how to
talk. People said that it was in its early stages, that it had progress to
make; I thought that we would grow up together. I have not forgotten
our common childhood: whenever I am offered a hard candy, whenever a
woman varnishes her nails near me, whenever I inhale a certain smell of
disinfectant in the toilet of a provincial hotel, whenever I see the violet
bulb on the ceiling of a night train, my eyes, nostrils, and tongue
recapture the lights and odors of those bygone halls; four years ago, in
rough weather off the coast of Fingal's Cave, I heard a piano in the wind.
Jean-Paul Sartre, The Words (1964)
Xl