Call for papers: Good taste tested. Metamorphoses of literary cinephilia (20th-21st centuries)
The editorial board of Relief – Revue électronique de littérature française invites proposals for a special issue on literary cinephilia, to be directed by Fabien Dubosson (University of Bern / Swiss Literary Archives).
For film historians, cinephilia corresponds first and foremost to a very specific moment in the history of film reception: the advent, after 1945, of a demanding approach to cinema, and of a form of criticism that became confused with the famous ‘politics of authorship’ (de Baecque: 2003). But cinephilia can also be understood more broadly and encompassingly, in terms of what Laurent Jullier and Jean-Marc Leveratto call 'ordinary cinephilia' (Jullier, Leveratto: 2010). Beyond the historical closure of the phenomenon, cinephilia should be seen as the multifaceted expression of a fascination for cinema: a fascination with movies, of course - with selected filmographies, with 'cult films' - but also with cinema as the expression of a sociologically or historically marked cultural practice; a fascination with actresses and actors, sometimes perceived from a fantasmatic or charismatic angle; a fascination with singular images (isolated shots or sequences, striking details, photograms, posters, etc.), but also for words and sounds; a fascination with cinematographic devices (from projection instruments to darkened rooms); love of the world of cinema in general, of its imaginary of its fetishes; and perhaps, reflexively, love of cinephilia itself, in a sometimes nostalgic gesture, at a time when it seems to belong to the past; or, on the contrary, a distancing from historical cinephilia in favour of renewed relationships with cinema, sometimes in deliberate rupture with this heritage.
This type of cinephilia, in the broadest sense of the term, is so insistent in the French literature of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that, following Fabien Gris, we can speak of 'literary cinephilia' (Gris, 2012). It is at times explicitly thematised, at other times more elusive or spectral. We can try to distinguish, on the one hand, literal expressions of this 'love' of writers for the cinema, such as those found in essays or criticism, or in autobiographical and intimate writings (diaries, personal notebooks); on the other, representations (sometimes to the second degree) of this cinematographic passion - or obsession -, as they appear in fiction in particular. But in reality, cinephilia reveals a "massive tendency to mix references across generic distinctions" (Kieffer 2021: 37); while it has an impact on the choice of genres, it also allows for formal associations and hybridisations. Of course, film criticism (particularly in dedicated journals) seems to be the most 'instituted' practice of literary cinephilia, but it is undoubtedly not the most frequent one; more personal and indirect forms, as well as fictional representations, seem to be just as common.
In both cases, however, the cinema and the feelings it generates enable writers to express and dramatise the complexity of the relationship between the individual (or even the intimate) and the collective, and the ambiguous interplay between them, which can give rise to both support and rejection, in a constantly renewed war of tastes and imaginations, which sometimes involves a declaration of war on taste as such. The aim of this issue is therefore also to offer a contrasting vision of this literary cinephilia, where ambivalent positions, polemical intentions and (self-)contradictions often prevail, over and above the mere 'love of cinema'.
The aim of this issue is also to offer a form of history of this cinephilic gaze, looking at it over a long period - from the literature of post-war years to the writers of today. Regarding the 1950s and 1960s, at a time when historical cinephilia was taking hold, the positions of literary figures gravitating around Sartre and Les Temps modernes (Jean Cau, Boris Vian, Alexandre Astruc), but also of rival journals such as Arts (Jacques Laurent), and then those of surrealist heirs such as Ado Kyrou or Robert Benayoun within Positif, could serve as the first milestones, as well of cours as those of the novelists of the Nouveau Roman -Claude Ollier, Claude Simon, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Marguerite Duras - but in the case of the latter two, we should probably focus more on their cinephilic positions than on their film production. We could also look at individual writers as different as Julien Gracq, Pierre Guyotat and Françoise Sagan, or consider the place of cinema - and its sometimes less legitimate variants - in the work of thriller writers, from André Héléna to Jean-Patrick Manchette. Lastly, we will give pride of place to the most contemporary forms of this cinephilia, in novelists such as Emmanuel Carrère, Jean Echenoz or Olivia Rosenthal, or in certain poets (such as Emmanuel Hocquard or Pierre Alferi, to name but two examples).
What roles do writers play at each stage of this history, in appropriating or contesting aesthetic fashions, theoretical models and established canons (classical Hollywood cinema, the Nouvelle Vague, New Hollywood, etc.)? In this history, it will be important to point out the discontinuities specific to this literary cinephilia. At what times has it experienced its 'heroic' phases, its periods of ebb and flow, its critical comebacks and questionings? How has it represented - particularly in fiction - the emergence of new practices, new media and new economic models that have revolutionised cinema and its consumption - and, more generally, our relationship with moving images?
The social dimension of this type of cinephilia can also be highlighted. On the one hand, we see a cultural elitism at work - sometimes asserted, sometimes denied - which goes hand in hand with the emergence of a learned and academic cinephilia; on the other, an 'ordinary' practice of cinema is maintained, which rejects the hierarchisation of tastes and audiences (Jullier, Leveratto: 2010). What role do literary figures play in maintaining or challenging these oppositions?
What's more, cinephilia acutely raises a number of gender-related issues. In 1978, Louis Skorecki bluntly remarked that cinephilia - at least in its historical sense - "is first and foremost a male phenomenon, which concerned (and in its new, bastardised forms concerns) only men". (Skorecki 1997: §15). Geneviève Sellier's studies (Sellier: 2005) have since shown how cinephilia has, in France in particular, imposed a specifically male view of cinema and enabled its scholarly legitimisation, by encouraging the systematic decontextualisation of films in order to better conceal their social and gendered dimensions. How has this predominance of the male gaze influenced contemporary literary representations of the cinema? What strategies have been employed to counter this prevalence? What specifically feminine cinephilias have challenged these imposed dichotomies? In short, how can cinephilia be considered in terms of gender, in a literary context?
Finally, we would like to examine the cinephilia of writers from an archival perspective. Heritage institutions are often rich in documents attesting to the links between literature and cinema. We are all aware of the cinematic temptations - and the move to filmmaking - of many figures from the literary world: the presence in archives of screenplays (adaptations or original scripts), often left unfinished, bears witness to this. But the archival traces left by auctorial cinephilia in the strict sense of the word seem to be less well known. Our aim is to draw attention to these documents, their nature (screening diaries, press cuttings, photo collections, etc.) and their genetic links with the published works (critical or fictional). We shall thus show how the archive makes it possible to inscribe literary cinephilia in time, that of aesthetic history, but also in the more limited time of writers' careers: what role does the very act of archiving play in reactivating or distancing cinephilic practices and 'tastes'?
This issue of Relief aims to offer an overview of literary cinephilia in the long-term, from the post-war period to its mutation in recent decades, focusing on the different approaches we have just mentioned, either through panoramic articles or through the study of singular cases. Papers may be written in French or English.
Deadline for submissions: July 1 2024. Authors of selected proposals must submit the full article (6000 to 8000 words) in accordance with the Relief style sheet by 15 October 2024.
Please send a proposal of around 300 words, together with a brief biobibliographical note, to revuerelief@gmail.com and to Fabien Dubosson: fabien.dubosson@unibe.ch.
About the journal
Relief is an international peer-reviewed scientific journal in the field of French-language literatures. Relief publishes two issues per year. The issues are organized thematically, but each one has space for various contributions as well as book reviews. For more information, please go to our website: www.revue-relief.org.
Selected bibliography
Chollet, Laurent, « Cours, camarade... La séance a commencé. Cinéphiles, cinémaniaques et critiques de cinéma dans l'après-guerre », L’Homme et la Société. Revue internationale de recherches et de synthèses en sciences sociales, no142, octobre-décembre 2001, p. 45-63.
Cohen, Nadja, Les Poètes modernes et le cinéma (1910-1930), Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2013.
Daney, Serge, Itinéraire d’un ciné-fils, Paris, Jean-Michel Place éditeur, 1999.
De Baecque, Antoine, La cinéphilie. Invention d’un regard, histoire d’une culture, 1944-1968, Paris, Éditions Fayard, 2004.
—, Critique et cinéphilie, Paris, Petite bibliothèque des Cahiers du Cinéma, 2001.
Gris, Fabien, « Perec, ou les débuts de la cinéphilie littéraire », Cahiers Georges Perec 11, 2011, p. 61-72.
—, Images et imaginaires cinématographiques dans le récit français (de la fin des années 1970 à nos jours), thèse de doctorat en littérature française sous la dir. de Jean-Bernard Vray, Université de Saint-Etienne, 2012.
Jullier, Laurent et Jean-Marc Leveratto, Cinéphiles et cinéphilies une histoire de la qualité cinématographique, Paris, Armand Colin, 2010.
Kieffer, Morgane, « Les romans cinéphiles français. Essai de synthèse sur les modalités d'une relation contemporaine », French Forum, 46, no 2-3, automne/hiver 2021, p. 137-150.
Mourlet, Michel, L’écran éblouissant : voyages en cinéphilie (1958-2010), Paris, Presses universitaires de France, 2011.
Mulvey, Laura, Au-delà du plaisir visuel. Féminisme, énigmes, cinéphilie, Sesto San Giovanni, Mimesis, collection « Formes filmiques », 2017.
Pigoullié, Jean-François, « Pour une éthique de la cinéphilie », Esprit, no 305 (6), juin 2004, p. 63-89.
Rosenthal, Olivia, Futur antérieur, Caen, IMEC, coll. « Diaporama », 2022.
Reggiani, Christelle, Perec et le cinéma, Paris, Nouvelles Éditions Place, coll. « Le cinéma des poètes », 2021.
Sebbag, Georges, Breton et le cinéma, Paris, Nouvelles Éditions Place, coll. « Le cinéma des poètes », 2017.
Sellier, Geneviève, « Gender studies et études filmiques », Cahiers du Genre, 2005/1, n° 38, p. 63-85.
—, La Nouvelle Vague, un cinéma au masculin singulier, Paris, CNRS éditions, 2005.
Skorecki, Louis, « Contre la nouvelle cinéphilie », Vacarme, 1997/4-5 (n° 4 - 5), p. 94-103. DOI : 10.3917/vaca.004.0094. URL : https://www.cairn.info/revue-vacarme-1997-4-page-94.htm.
