"What is Cinema?", André Bazin
André Bazin (1918-1958) was one of the most influential film critics and theorists. A co-founder of the renowned film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma , his writings on the superiority of deep focus and long takes against the montage, have contributed to much discussion about cinema along the decades. Bazin defended cinema as an art of realism expressed through mise en scène , and that ambiguity should be led in an image by presenting reality as a whole, so that the spectator could interpret, by himself, a scene. For such reasons he acclaimed directors like Jean Renoir, Orson Welles and William Wyler. Most of his writings are collected in the four volumes of Qu'est-ce que le cinéma? . Some of these were translated to an english version, in two volumes, between 1967 and 1971 ( What is Cinema? ) that became a crucial reference in film courses. Excerpts : "The truth of the matter is, that if you are looking for the precursor of Orson Welles, it is ...