Les Cahiers du cinéma: Censorship, Debates, and Controversies
Four controversial positions taken by the magazine
ReadCahiers du cinéma No. 161 / 162 - December 1964 / January 1965 (1964-12)Cahiers du cinéma
A look back at four controversies affecting the magazine.
Cahiers du cinéma has always been very clear on its stances, whether it's a question of defending the artistic freedom of moviemakers (auteurs), or a certain political, moral, or aesthetic idea of cinema.
Cahiers du cinéma No. 177 - April 1966 (1966-04)Cahiers du cinéma
1. The Nun scandal
Jacques Rivette, then Editor-in-Chief of Cahiers du cinéma, directed an adaptation of Diderot's The Nun in 1965. The movie caused an outcry among Catholic institutions. The movie was banned in 1966, then re-released in 1967 following a legal battle.
Jean-Luc Godard wrote an open letter to the Minister of Culture André Malraux, and Cahiers defended the movie: "This movie, which some find Christian and others anti-Christian, is a complex movie, and that makes it intelligent. Is it not this very intelligence that we are censoring? We bet no one would have bat an eyelid had it displayed the cursory clericalism or anti-clericalism typical of French cinema in the past. French cinema that never had the right (when it felt like it) to do anything that called anyone into question; to be a jack of all trades, without committing to anything. At least this ban had the curious effect of uniting people who were divided on everything else. And, finally, the act of censorship is always an admission of impotence; we might as well give ourselves a pat on the back!" (Cahiers no. 177)
Cahiers du cinéma No. 262 / 263 - January 1976 special (1976-01)Cahiers du cinéma
2. Cahiers against censorship
There are many other examples of the fight against censorship in the history of the magazine, which dedicated an issue to it in 1976 after the creation of a law taxing movies deemed pornographic, perverse, or violent, aiming to stem the mass arrival of porn on the big screen.
This cover of issue no. 262 was created especially for Cahiers du cinéma by Willem, a cartoonist at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Cahiers du cinéma n°423 - September 1989 (1989-09)Cahiers du cinéma
3. Popular controversial works
Cahiers du cinéma also weighed in on clashes in taste. Supporters of the comic Jerry Lewis, who was not always well-received in the US, also brought Batman into a critical space that had not traditionally engaged much with popular culture.
"If I had to explain the following notes, I would only say this; there is a Lewis character just as there is a bathroom. Fields character, a Groucho character, a Chaplin character, and a Keaton character. One of the most striking characteristics of the comic hero is to always present himself as one of a kind—as if laughter (and psychologists were not mistaken) plunges deeper into the human soul than tragedy and melodrama. Yes, there is deep laughter, but there is also shameful laughter. The Lewis character offers, in our opinion, a rather beautiful illustration of both." André S. Labarthe, Cahiers du cinéma no. 132.
Les Sièges de l'Alcazar (1989)Cahiers du cinéma
4. Heated exchanges
The history of Cahiers was also marked by its legendary hostility with the French magazine Positif (Positive), founded in 1952. Luc Moullet made a movie about it in 1989, Les Sièges de l'Alcazar (The Seats of the Alcazar Cinema), in which a young critic at Cahiers is struck by an impossible love for a competitor from Positif.
Find out more
