Cahiers du cinéma n°346 - April 1983 (1983-04)Cahiers du cinéma
Movie diarist
Serge Daney (1944–1992) was Editor-in-Chief of Cahiers du cinéma from 1974 to 1981. Treating criticism the same as keeping a logbook, he explored the emerging connection between cinema, television, and other images.
Movie lover
Serge Daney, the orphan of a Jewish father arrested by the Gestapo, fell in love with movies through his French teacher, Henri Agel, who was a pioneer in cinema studies research. He wrote his first articles for Cahiers du cinéma in 1964, after being asked by the film critic and director Jean Douchet.
Daney's first publication in the magazine was in June 1964 (issue no. 156) and was titled Frank and Jerry. Dedicated to Who's Minding the Store? by Frank Tashlin starring Jerry Lewis, this article already demonstrated his art of being direct.
"If 'the American way of life' is a caricature of life, so is the satirical genre; both exist only in relation to something that pre-exists. Tashlin only exists through and for the monster he pledged to slay. Because he goes to war with fake weapons, he only achieves temporary success. This vision of a mechanical world where humans are gradually swallowed up invades and blurs his vision, but the difference is that complicity (which once linked him to the world of 'comics' condemned in Artist and Models) is no longer possible. [...]"
Cahiers du cinéma No. 249 - February/March 1974 (1974-03)Cahiers du cinéma
Daney Editor-in-Chief
Serge Daney became Editor-in-Chief in 1973 with Serge Toubiana, marking a change from a very theoretical and political period of Cahiers du cinéma.
A contemporary when it came to the rise of TV entertainment, Serge Daney was the melancholic theorist at the end of the golden age of cinema, linked to modernity and endorsed by Daney amid postmodern disillusionment. "The golden age of cinema relied on one formula; a lot of people were watching movies in a lot of movie theaters where there were a lot of people. [...] We know that toward the middle of the century (post-war, television), fewer and fewer people were watching movies in a surplus of movie theaters where there were fewer and fewer people."
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1976)Cahiers du cinéma
This bitterness didn't stop him from writing lively and incisive texts on the cinema at the time, particularly on the emerging figures of New Hollywood, and on the changes in our emotional and political relationship to images in general.
"Exposing a room of viewers to legal violence (the law, legal representatives, government officials) or to violence involving the reinforcement of the law (militia, quiet men transformed into vigilante monsters, cops avenging a friend) fascinates them. By making normal, normativity, and quick normalization something sought-after. In fascist ideology, the norm takes the place of both nature (normal = natural) and culture (normal = traditional). We know how that ends. Exposing a movie theater of viewers to legitimate violence is a characteristic of progressive movies (which we've also called modernist at Cahiers). These movies are characterized by a subtle, vague, but unavoidable affirmation; the right to resist, and not to resign yourself to all things that oppress Man (who, as a result, gets a capital M), the right and duty to say no." Serge Daney, issue no. 266–267.
The Night of the Hunter (1955)Cahiers du cinéma
Serge Daney was always very interested in American cinema. Movies that marked his career as a movie buff include The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955) and Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959).
Rio Bravo (1959)Cahiers du cinéma
The article by Serge Daney devoted to Rio Bravo can be found in issue no. 458 of Cahiers du cinéma, July–August 1992.
From Libération to Trafic
At the end of 1981, Serge Daney left Cahiers for the daily French newspaper Libération, where he wrote an increasingly hybrid movie column (some content about television can be found in the book Le Salaire du zappeur [The Channel Surfer's Salary] published by Éditions P.O.L.).
In 1991, Serge Daney founded the magazine Trafic with Jean-Claude Biette. Other writers included Sylvie Pierre, Raymond Bellour, and Jacques Rancière. Without any illustrations, the magazine contained in-depth critical articles with a considered, long, and literary style, willingly standing back from new releases to allow time for reflection and to approach movies with more perspective.
Cahiers du cinéma n°458 - July/August 1992 (1992-08)Cahiers du cinéma
Serge Daney died of AIDS in June 1992, a year after the magazine was launched. Trafic continued to be published until 2021.
Find out more
Cahiers du cinéma dedicated a tribute piece to Serge Daney in issue no. 679 (June 2012) and compiled the movie journal articles from his time at Libération. The magazine also published a collective tribute book titled Serge Daney, which brings together texts from his colleagues and friends.
Discover the portrait of André Bazin, founder of Cahiers du cinéma.
