A Short History of 'Cahiers du Cinéma' (Paperback)

It was 'the last modernist project', Emilie Bickerton says in this deft account of the real life and virtual death of Cahiers du cinema. The cinema itself lived and died in its pages, and it would be hard to imagine a better brief guide to the magazine's positions and polemics than this intelligent and sharply focused book. Valuable and highly informative. The French New Wave directors all came from Cahiers du Cine?ma, a magazine that turned film criticism upside down in the 1950s. The salvos of its sagacity are finely charted by Bickerton, who also laments the recent slide into dumbed-down mediocrity. What I love is Bickerton's certainty and courage ... Bickerton does a well-told, thoroughly researched job. Compelling ... a reminder that contemporary film criticism could do with being more unapologetically clever-more ingenious, more argumentative, more French. Has many of the ingredients of a good thriller ... Emilie Bickerton's alert prose manages to convey the drama and passionate confrontation of ideas, and she shows a keen eye for revealing detail. Emilie Bickerton has done a valuable and highly informative job. Tantalisingly concise ... A reminder that contemporary film criticism could do with being more unapologetically clever-more ingenious, more argumentative, more French.