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André Bazin (April 18, 1918–November 11, 1958) was a famous and influential French film critic and film theorist.
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Biography
Bazin was born in Angers, France. He started to write on film in 1943 and was co-founder of the Cahiers du cinéma in 1951. As a spiritual father of the Nouvelle Vague (French New Wave) he was also a personal friend to Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Robert Bresson, Luis Buñuel, Marcel Carné, Jean Cocteau, Henri Langlois, Luchino Visconti and Jean Renoir. He died in Nogent-sur-Marne, Île-de-France.
Bazin practically invented film studies – two of his translated collections of criticism are mainstays of film courses; What is Cinema, volumes 1 & 2. He wanted the film picture to be treated respectfully and believed in the unveiling potential of film: the possibility to depict reality. Bazin is known as a proponent of "appreciative criticism," wherein only critics who like a film can write a review of it, thus encouraging constructive criticism.
Bazin in Pop Culture
Richard Linklater's film Waking Life features a discussion of Bazin's film theory. There is an emphasis on Bazin's Christianity, and the belief that every shot is a presentation of God manifest.
Bibliography
In English:
- What Is Cinema?, by André Bazin (1967)
- Orson Welles, by André Bazin (1979)
- French Cinema of the Occupation and Resistance: The Birth of a Critical Esthetic, by André Bazin (1982)
- The Cinema of Cruelty: From Bunuel to Hitchcock, by André Bazin (1982)
- Essays on Chaplin, by André Bazin (1985)
- Jean Renoir, by André Bazin (1992)
- Bazin at Work: Major Essays & Reviews from the Forties and Fifties, by André Bazin, Bert Cardullo (ed.) (1996)
- French Cinema from the Liberation to the New Wave, 1945-1958, by André Bazin, Bert Cardullo (ed.) (2004)
Online texts
- The Life and Death of Superimposition (1946) (http://www.film-philosophy.com/vol6-2002/n1bazin)
- Will CinemaScope Save the Film Industry? (1953) (http://www.film-philosophy.com/vol6-2002/n2bazin)
External links
- André Bazin : An Unofficial Tribute to The World-Renowned Film Critic and Film Theorist (http://www.unofficialbaziniantrib.com/)
- André Bazin - Divining the real (page on BFI) (http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/archive/innovators/bazin.html)
- André Bazin: Part 1, Film Style Theory in its Historical Context (http://www.horschamp.qc.ca/new_offscreen/bazin_intro.html)
- André Bazin: Part 2, Style as a Philosophical Idea (http://horschamp.qc.ca/new_offscreen/bazin_intro2.html)fr:André Bazin