Positif

Positif
Title	Positif
Category	Film magazine
Frequency	Monthly
Founder	Bernard Chardère
Founded	1952
Country	France
Based	Paris
Language	French

Positif

Positif is a French monthly film magazine founded in 1952 in Paris that has specialized in long-form film criticism, auteur studies, and cinematic theory. Over decades it has engaged with international cinema, covering works by figures such as Jean-Luc Godard, Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, and Federico Fellini while maintaining debates with other periodicals like Cahiers du Cinéma, Sight & Sound, and Film Comment. The journal has been associated with a roster of influential critics, writers, and scholars connected to institutions such as Cinémathèque Française, Institut Lumière, and universities in France and abroad.

History

Positif was founded in 1952 by Bernard Chardère amid postwar cultural reconstruction in France and the emergence of film criticism as a professional field alongside publications like Cahiers du Cinéma and France-Observateur. Early issues engaged with the legacies of directors such as Charlie Chaplin, Sergei Eisenstein, Fritz Lang, and Orson Welles and responded to film movements including Italian neorealism, German Expressionism, and the burgeoning French New Wave. During the 1950s and 1960s Positif positioned itself within debates about authorship, montage, and cinematic form that involved personalities like François Truffaut, André Bazin, Jacques Rivette, and Eric Rohmer. In subsequent decades it broadened its international reach to cover cinema from Japan, India, Brazil, Iran, and Nigeria, featuring work on filmmakers including Satyajit Ray, Yasujiro Ozu, Werner Herzog, Ritwik Ghatak, and Ousmane Sembène.

Editorial Profile and Political Stance

Editorially, Positif has been characterized by a commitment to auteurism, cultural analysis, and often a left-leaning humanist perspective that engaged with political and social questions raised by films from directors such as Costa-Gavras, Ken Loach, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Pedro Almodóvar. The magazine’s stance has at times diverged from contemporaries over issues like censorship, state funding for the arts, and festival politics involving institutions such as the Cannes Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival. Positif’s debates have intersected with intellectual currents represented by figures like Jean-Paul Sartre, Roland Barthes, Pierre Bourdieu, and Michel Foucault through criticism that situated cinema within broader cultural and ideological frameworks.

Contributors and Notable Editors

Over its history Positif has published writing by critics, theorists, and filmmakers associated with entities such as Cinémathèque Française, BBC, La Cinémathèque de Toulouse, and major universities. Notable editors and contributors have included Christian Metz, Serge Daney, André Bazin-era interlocutors, along with later figures like Michel Ciment, Rémy Chevrin, and Olivier Assayas in their capacities as writers or interviewees. The magazine has also featured interviews and texts by filmmakers and cultural figures such as Martin Scorsese, Pedro Almodóvar, Wim Wenders, David Lynch, Agnes Varda, Hayao Miyazaki, and Abbas Kiarostami, connecting editorial practice to cinematic production and festival circuits like Venice Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival.

Content and Coverage (Film Criticism and Culture)

Positif’s content spans reviews, thematic dossiers, auteur retrospectives, manifestos, and conversations that bring into dialogue practitioners from regions represented by organizations like the British Film Institute, National Film Board of Canada, and Tōhō Studios. Coverage has included analytic pieces on classic and contemporary works by Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Roman Polanski, Andrei Tarkovsky, Wong Kar-wai, and Guillermo del Toro as well as sustained attention to national cinemas of Japan, Italy, India, Iran, Turkey, and Mexico. The magazine regularly publishes long-form essays combining formal analysis, historiography, and cultural criticism, and has engaged with cross-disciplinary subjects invoking scholars such as Gilles Deleuze and concepts explored in symposia at institutions like Collège de France and Université Paris 8.

Reception and Influence

Critically, Positif has been influential in shaping French and international film discourse, often counterbalancing perspectives advanced by Cahiers du Cinéma and contributing to the canonization of filmmakers such as Hiroshi Teshigahara, Sergio Leone, and Robert Bresson. Academic and festival programmers frequently cite Positif articles in curatorial notes and monographs published by houses like Éditions Gallimard and BFI Publishing. The magazine’s debates have influenced curricula in film schools such as La Fémis and been referenced in studies at universities including Sorbonne University and University of California, Berkeley.

Publication and Distribution

Published monthly from Paris, Positif is distributed nationally in France and internationally through partnerships with bookstores, academic distributors, and festival stands at events like Cannes Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival. The magazine has been produced in print with special issues and occasional English-language summaries and has collaborated with archives including the British Film Institute and the Bibliothèque nationale de France for retrospectives, exhibitions, and translations.

Awards and Special Issues

Positif has issued themed dossiers and special numbers devoted to festivals such as Cannes and subjects including the oeuvres of Jean-Luc Godard, Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, Ingmar Bergman, and national cinemas like Japanese cinema and Italian cinema. The magazine and its contributors have received recognition from cultural institutions including prizes from Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée, festival honors at Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival, and academic citations in award-winning monographs on figures such as Andrei Tarkovsky and Alfred Hitchcock.

Category:Film magazines published in France