When Andre Bazin's life was tragically cut short by death at the
age of 40 in 1958, he had already established himself as one of the
best and most influential film critic-aestheticians in the world.
He was, perhaps, the cinema's first scholar-critic and the
cherished mentor of that group of French film directors who came to
be called the "New Wave" and inspired the auteur theory - many of
them contributors to this book. Among them are Francois Truffaut
(who relying on Bazin's unfinished manuscripts and notes is
responsible for the editing as well as the introduction and several
essays in this book), Jean-Luc Godard, and Eric Rohmer. The
veneration felt for Bazin by many Europeans parallels the feelings
many Americans harbor for James Agee; and if the former was more
disciplined in his approach to film, his writing certainly lacked
the artistry of the latter. In Truffaut's introduction which
admittedly eschews disinterestedness, he calls Jean Renoir "the
best book on cinema, written by the best critic, about the best
director." That one is inclined to demur from this compound
hyperbole is less significant than the fact that this book is
unquestionably one of the best books on cinema, written by one of
its most respected critics, about one of its best directors.
Bazin's book is certainly indispensable for anyone who is serious
about film. Even if we occasionally disagree with his particular
valuations, we cannot but be sensitized to flesh insights, exposed
to new details, and, in general, come away from the experience more
knowledgeable about the art of film. (Kirkus Reviews)
This classic in the literature of cinema represents the convergence
of the three leading figures of French film: Jean Renoir,
universally considered the greatest French director Andre Bazin,
the outstanding French film critic and theorist and Francois
Truffaut, the pioneer of la nouvelle vague. Bazin left this
examination of Renoir's films unfinished when he died in 1958
Truffaut collected and edited the essays, and added a comprehensive
filmography in which Bazin, Truffaut, Jacques Rivette, Jean-Luc
Godard, Eric Rohmer, and other Cahiers du Cinema regulars comment
on the films. Here are brilliant insights into the whole of
Renoir's oeuvre, from the avant-garde fantasy of La Petite
Marchande d'Allumettes, through the epic humanism of Grand Illusion
and The Rules of the Game, to the quiet grace of The River and the
profound theatricality of The Golden Coach. Bazin shows why Renoir
is the critical figure in the development of cinema since the
silent era, and how he went beyond montage to give the art new
expressive potential. Renoir's work constitutes one of the most
fully and beautifully elabourated visions in contemporary art, and
nowhere is this humanistic vision better illuminated than in this
book.
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