La Gazette du Cinéma

La Gazette du Cinéma
Title	La Gazette du Cinéma
Category	Film magazine
Country	France
Language	French

La Gazette du Cinéma was a French periodical devoted to film criticism, industry coverage, and cinematic culture that operated during the 20th century. It intersected with contemporaneous publications, festivals, studios, and intellectual movements, shaping debates around directors, movements, and performance. The magazine engaged with filmmakers, actors, producers, festivals, archives, and institutions across Europe and beyond, situating itself within networks that included studios, academies, and prize committees.

History

Founded amid debates that surrounded the aftermath of World War I and the interwar cultural scene, the periodical emerged as part of the same milieu that produced journals connected with Cahiers du Cinéma, Positif, La Revue du Cinéma, Sight & Sound, and Film Comment. It navigated political and aesthetic shifts that involved figures linked to Jean Renoir, Sergei Eisenstein, Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, and Luis Buñuel. The magazine’s timeline intersected with major events such as the Cannes Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival, the Berlin International Film Festival, and retrospectives at institutions like the Cinémathèque Française. Editors and contributors positioned the periodical in relation to studios such as Pathé, Gaumont, MGM, Warner Bros., and UFA, as well as national cinemas represented by Italian neorealism, French New Wave, German Expressionism, and Soviet montage. Political contexts involving the Popular Front (France), the Vichy regime, and postwar reconstruction affected coverage and editorial lines, with occasional responses to censorship enacted by bodies like the Commission de contrôle des films.

Editorial Profile and Content

The magazine mixed criticism, interviews, technical analyses, and festival reports, often comparing auteurs such as François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, and Federico Fellini with stars like Catherine Deneuve, Marlon Brando, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, and Humphrey Bogart. Feature articles considered screenwriters including Henri-Georges Clouzot, Billy Wilder, and Nora Ephron alongside cinematographers such as Sven Nykvist and Roger Deakins. Coverage extended to composers like Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone, editors such as Thelma Schoonmaker, and production designers affiliated with Ken Adam. Technical sections addressed equipment used by companies like ARRI, Panavision, and Technicolor, and explored techniques resonant with movements including Dogme 95, Italian neorealism, and German Expressionism. The magazine reviewed releases from distributors such as Criterion Collection, StudioCanal, Sony Pictures Classics, and IFC Films, while also discussing television milestones involving BBC Television, HBO, and Canal+.

Contributors and Key Figures

Regular contributors included critics and scholars who debated auteurs associated with André Bazin, Alexander Astruc, Jacques Rivette, Éric Rohmer, and Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz; guest essays featured practitioners like Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Billy Wilder, Akira Kurosawa, and Robert Bresson. Interviews were conducted with producers from Samuel Goldwyn, David O. Selznick, and Cecil B. DeMille lineages, while profiles covered actors and directors affiliated with Hollywood, Bollywood, Nollywood, Japanese cinema, and Chinese cinema. The masthead often included editors who collaborated with institutions such as Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, La Sorbonne, École Normale Supérieure, and archival projects linked to British Film Institute and Library of Congress. Critics and historians contributing essays invoked film historians like Noël Burch, Thomas Elsaesser, Richard Dyer, Gilles Deleuze, and André Bazin.

Distribution and Circulation

La Gazette du Cinéma circulated in networks that included independent bookstores in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, and cultural centers in Brussels, Geneva, London, New York City, and Rome. It appeared on stands alongside periodicals from Les Inrockuptibles, Télérama, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Le Monde. Institutional subscriptions were held by archives and libraries such as the Cinémathèque Française, British Film Institute, Museum of Modern Art, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and university libraries at Columbia University, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Southern California, and Sorbonne University. Distribution channels involved partnerships with distributors like Hachette, Gallimard, and specialty sellers including Shakespeare and Company.

Influence and Reception

The magazine influenced debates around auteurism, star studies, and national cinema, intersecting with theoretical frameworks from Structuralism, practitioners like Jean Epstein, and critics such as Raymond Durgnat. Its commentary contributed to programming choices at festivals like Cannes Film Festival and retrospectives at institutions including MoMA, Tate Modern, and Centre Pompidou. Reception included endorsements from filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, and Martin Scorsese, and criticism from industrial figures tied to Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox. Academic citations appeared in journals like Screen, Cinema Journal, and Film Quarterly, and the magazine’s positions influenced curricula at film schools including La Fémis, Film School of the National Film and Television School, and USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Archival Holdings and Preservation

Complete runs and partial collections are preserved in institutional archives such as the Cinémathèque Française, the British Film Institute National Archive, the Library of Congress, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and university special collections at Yale University, Harvard University, and New York University. Preservation efforts involved digitization projects coordinated with organizations like Europeana, UNESCO, and national ministries of culture in France and Italy, and utilized standards developed by Istituto Luce, Library of Congress, and the International Federation of Film Archives. Special collections include correspondence with filmmakers held at archives like Institut Lumière and production files stored in studio collections of Pathé and Gaumont.

Category:French film magazines