La Politique Des Auteurs and French New Wave Cinema
How the "authors' policy" transformed film reception
ReadCahiers du cinéma n°44 - February 1955 (1955-02)Cahiers du cinéma
Not a concept, but a worldview
There'd be no Cahiers du cinéma magazine without the politique des auteurs (policy of authors) approach to critiquing movies. The politique des auteurs —the true theoretical basis of the magazine — radically changed how movies were received in more ways than one.
Genesis of an expression that has become commonplace
Although it embodies a very specific world vision, the politique des auteurs is not strictly a concept. Even though the expression was first used by François Truffaut in 1955 in an article he wrote about Ali Baba by Jacques Becker (Cahiers no. 44), its origin can be traced back to André Bazin, one of the founders of Cahiers.
1. Directors: Auteurs in their own right
The politique des auteurs established the director as the sole creator of their movie. The script, previously considered as key from the industry's point of view, is therefore significantly called into question. Because from this perspective, what matters is...
Cahiers du cinéma n°62 - August/September 1956 (1956-09)Cahiers du cinéma
...the recognition of style and writing specific to a director that conveys an individual vision of the world, including in movies produced within the industry for primarily commercial purposes.
Fritz Lang reading Cahiers du cinéma (Mid-1950s)Cahiers du cinéma
Hollywood: The melting pot of auteurs
At its core, the politique des auteurs — and its support by Cahiers — consisted of showing and proving through critical writing that directors considered perfectly mainstream...
Cahiers du cinéma n°80 - February 1958 (1958-02)Cahiers du cinéma
...such as Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, and Fritz Lang, were actually auteurs, and that each of their movies has an unmistakably recognizable style.
Cahiers du cinéma n°92 - February 1959 (1959-02)Cahiers du cinéma
The February 1959 cover of Cahiers du cinéma issue 92 features an image from Alfred Hitchcock's film Vertigo. The magazine also includes an article about Hitchcock and analyses of his works.
2. In support of artistic gesture
On the cover: The Mystery of Picasso by Henri-Georges Clouzot (1956). André Bazin wrote about the movie in Cahiers.
Cahiers du cinéma n°59 - May 1956 (1956-05)Cahiers du cinéma
For critics, it's not so much a question of distinguishing between good and bad movies, than of identifying auteurs whose vision is conveyed from movie to movie without compromise, including in commissioned or studio movies. So, critical writing requires commitment, an unquestioning loyalty to the auteurs. A bad movie by a true auteur will always be more interesting than a successful movie by a director without vision.
Cahiers du cinéma n°52 - November 1955 (1955-11)Cahiers du cinéma
The treatment of directors as writers, which is inherent in this approach, brings the director closer to the critic, and the act of filming closer to writing. In this respect, the politique des auteurs owes much to the director and theorist Alexandre Astruc, who first introduced this analogy in a 1948 article published in the French magazine L'Écran français (The French Screen).
Cahiers du cinéma n°78 - Special Christmas Number 1957 (1957-12)Cahiers du cinéma
Issue number 78 of Cahiers du cinéma is dedicated to Jean Renoir, another filmmaker faithfully followed by the magazine. It features an interview conducted by Jacques Rivette and François Truffaut, which continues the conversation started during their first meeting in 1954. Interviews with directors would become one of the strong identifying features of the magazine.
3. Writing: A lab for moviemaking?
Is there only one step from writing to film? This was certainly the case for the so-called "Jeunes Turcs", a group of young critics from the editorial staff of Cahiers in the second half of the 1950s, who quickly moved on to directing:
Cahiers du cinéma n°93 - March 1959 (1959-03)Cahiers du cinéma
Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, and Jacques Rivette made their first movies at the end of the 1950s, launching the movement that journalist Françoise Giroud would coin with the lasting phrase New Wave.
Cahiers du cinéma n°103 - January 1960 (1960-01)Cahiers du cinéma
The first movies by these New Wave directors were distinguished by technical and production characteristics that had strong esthetic implications, such as filming on location — in real scenery — and not in the studio (which was traditionally how it was done), live sound, and more lightweight filming devices that made improvisation possible, and thus made acting and staging more free.
Cahiers du cinéma No. 133 - July 1962 (1962-07)Cahiers du cinéma
The New Wave thus marked not only the birth of great directors, but also that of great actors and actresses such as Anna Karina (Jean-Luc Godard's partner and muse)...
Cahiers du cinéma n°122 - August 1961 (1961-08)Cahiers du cinéma
...Bernadette Lafont (appearing in François Truffaut and Claude Chabrol's movies), Bulle Ogier (Jacques Rivette's muse), Jean-Paul Belmondo (appearing in Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard), and...
Cahiers du cinéma n°104 - February 1960 (1960-02)Cahiers du cinéma
...Jean-Pierre Léaud (who played the recurring character of Antoine Doinel from the age of 14 until his thirties, starting in The 400 Blows in 1959 and ending in Bed & Board in 1979).
Cahiers du cinéma No. 202 - June-July 1968 (1968-07)Cahiers du cinéma
On the cover of issue no. 202 (June-July 1968) is Jacques Rivette's L'Amour fou (1969), starring Jean-Pierre Kalfon and Bulle Ogier. This film runs over four hours long and is known for its free form and complete openness to experimentation.
Cahiers du cinéma No. 210 - March 1969 (1969-03)Cahiers du cinéma
Meanwhile, the cover of issue no. 210 (March 1969) features Françoise Fabian and Jean-Louis Trintignant in Éric Rohmer's My Night at Maud's (1969), the third film in the director's Six Moral Tales series.
4. International status
These young directors, former critics for Cahiers, followed in the footsteps of their masters.
Cahiers du cinéma n°121 - July 1961 (1961-07)Cahiers du cinéma
The movies of Godard, Truffaut, and Chabrol made the cover and were featured in the magazine in articles that sought to underline the direct continuity between the act of criticism and the act of filming by these auteurs (cf. the article on Truffaut's The 400 Blows, Cahiers no. 97).
Cahiers du cinéma No. 138 - December 1962 (1962-12)Cahiers du cinéma
The popular and critical success achieved by these movies at the time, and their considerable influence on world cinema since then, largely explain why, in the collective imagination...
...Cahiers is so closely linked to the leading figures Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, and Jacques Rivette, whose articles — such as the famous De l'abjection (On Abjection) by Rivette and the Truffaut/Hitchcock interviews—still serve as a compass for young budding movie writers.
Proof of this success came to light in December 1962 (Cahiers no. 138), when it was time for the magazine to take stock of the New Wave in a special issue that featured Adieu Philippine on the cover, a movie by Jacques Rozier that was celebrated by the magazine. It was shot freely (with quite a few complications) between August 1960 and December 1961, but was only released in 1962 with restricted distribution despite an excerpt being acknowledge by the Directors Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.
Through interviews with three leading figures (Chabrol, Godard, and Truffaut) providing a dissection of young French cinema and an analysis of the economic situation, Cahiers took stock of the New Wave, a few years after its debut.
Cahiers du cinéma n°125 - November 1961 (1961-11)Cahiers du cinéma
For Cahiers, Jacques Rozier's movie became the emblem of young French cinema that knew how to reinvent itself, take risks, and avoid the ruts of classic production to film life as it spontaneously unfolded.
Between 1961 and 1963, the movie was mentioned and highlighted several times in the magazine, both from an esthetic point of view and the point of view of its production and distribution.
5. The persistence of a myth
These New Wave directors took very different paths with regards to the rest of their works, but they were still followed closely by Cahiers, which regularly paid tribute to them.
Special Edition - The Novel by François Truffaut - December 1984 (1984-12)Cahiers du cinéma
François Truffaut
In December 1984, Cahiers du cinéma paid tribute to the prematurely deceased François Truffaut with a special issue. This issue later became a book, Le Roman de François Truffaut, offering a rich portrait of the filmmaker through testimonies from his friends and collaborators, and texts exploring the unique qualities of his cinema.
Cahiers du cinéma n°653 - February 2010 (2010-02)Cahiers du cinéma
Éric Rohmer
In 2010, Cahiers du cinéma lost two fundamental figures in its history: Éric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol. Issue number 653 pays tribute to Rohmer, both as a critic and filmmaker, covering his early days at the magazine, his Moral Tales, Comedies and Proverbs, and Tales of the Four Seasons, and extending to his final films.
Cahiers du cinéma n°660 - October 2010 (2010-10)Cahiers du cinéma
Claude Chabrol
Issue number 660 celebrates the work of Claude Chabrol. In addition to articles analyzing the characteristic features of his films, these pages include interviews with three essential actresses from his cinema: Bernadette Lafont, Stéphane Audran, and Isabelle Huppert.
Cahiers du cinéma n°720 - March 2016 (2016-03)Cahiers du cinéma
Jacques Rivette
The March 2016 issue of Cahiers du cinéma (number 720) is a tribute to the recently deceased filmmaker. It explores his career through interviews with his actresses and collaborators, and includes a previously unpublished interview with the filmmaker himself.
Cahiers du cinéma n°791 - October 2022 (2022-10)Cahiers du cinéma
Jean-Luc Godard
The passing of Jean-Luc Godard in September 2022 was a singular event for Cahiers du cinéma, a publication deeply indebted to him as a former member, close associate, friend and guide.
Cahiers' issue 791 is a testament to his profound impact, featuring a wealth of articles spanning his entire body of work—from aesthetics and art to history and politics—all infused with a palpable sense of emotion across its hundred pages.
Cahiers du cinéma n°800 - July/August 2023 (2023-08)Cahiers du cinéma
"Remake the world"
Issue number 800 of Cahiers du cinéma celebrates the magazine's longevity and invites cinema to "remake the world." This title also serves as a tribute to Jacques Rozier, who recently passed away and was a fundamental figure for the magazine.
