FIRSTS ONLINE Winter 2020

5. [Cinema History] [ed. BAZIN, André, LO DUCA,
Joseph-Marie and DONIOL-VALCROZE, Jacques]
Cahiers Du Cinema: Revue Mensuelle Du Cinéma Et Du
Télécinéma: Nos. 1-5
Paris: Les Editions De L’Etoile, 1951
Five issues. Uniform yellow photo-illustrated wrappers, lettered in black.
Between 50 and 60 pp., profusely illustrated with b&w photographs
throughout, advertisements at rear.A little light wear to corners and spines,
spine glue detaching from contents in Nos. 4 and 5. L’Age Du Cinéma insert
present in No. 4. A very nice set.
First edition. CANADIAN PUBLISHER STUART KEATE’S COPY,
WITH HIS OWNERSHIP SIGNATURE TO FRONT FREE
ENDPAPER. WITH A REVIEW OF THE BOOK BY ‘TITUS CANBY’
LAID IN, PUBLISHED IN THE MAY 1962 ISSUE OF INFINITY.
First editions. THE FIRST FIVE ISSUES OF THE MOST
INFLUENTIAL CINEMA MAGAZINE EVER PUBLISHED.
Since its inception more than sixty years ago, Cahiers Du Cinéma has
been responsible for fundamental change in both thepractice and the
perception of cinema. Founded by film theorist and critic André Bazin in
1951, the magazine proudly laid out its manifesto from the outset, hailing
cinema as an art form every bit as important as literature, music or
painting, and according its practitioners the title of artist, not artiste. For
sixty years it has championed the serious over the merely entertaining,
the heroic failure over the safe success and, most importantly, a
distinctive European voice over transatlantic homogeneity. The
magazine’s flavour is captured by its list of the 100 best films of all time,
published in 2008. Citizen Kane and Night of the Hunter top a roll call
otherwise dominated by European and World cinema, with an occasional
nod to the likes of Howard Hawks and John Ford. It’s quirkiness is
characteristic of the magazine: there are the names you would expect
to find (Bergman, Fellini, Dreyer) but the chosen films are surprising
(Fanny and Alexander, Amarcord, and Gertrud are their respective
entries).
Cahiers Du Cinema was at its most influential in the late 1950s, when
the magazine became the official headquarters of the young directors of
the French New Wave: Truffaut, Chabrol, Godard, Rohmer and Rivette.
Socially, politically and intellectually engaged, these directors were the
engine room of La Nouvelle Vague , a movement which set the future
course not just of European cinema, but also that of the American indie
movement of the 1970s, whose leading lights were weaned on the films
promoted and popularised by Cahiers. Political infighting led to dark days
for the magazine in the early 1970s -- movies and Maoism don’t mix --
and the magazine has always had a tendency to disappear up its own cul
from time to time. But its faults notwithstanding, Cahiers remains the
most influential and respected film magazine ever published.
A lovely run of the first five issues of this magisterial publication -- the
New Yorker of cinema.
£750
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