Message from Michael Temple, Birkbeck, University of London, on behalf of the AFRHC (association française de recherche sur l’histoire du cinéma):
Have you ever read 1895 Revue d’histoire du cinéma, the only French-language journal devoted to the study of film history?
Perhaps you have looked at it occasionally in libraries or specialised bookshops. Perhaps you have never even heard of it at all. Whatever the case, we would like to tell you a little more about 1895 Revue d’histoire du cinéma, the journal of the French association of film historians.
Here is a presentation of the main features of the journal, followed by an outline of our latest issue, number 64, Autumn 2011.
The guiding principle of the journal is to combine original primary research with methodological innovation. We seek to discover fresh approaches and to raise new questions in relation to sources and/or objects that have not previously been brought to light. The scientific rigour that we aim for is underwritten by the editorial team, comprising academic experts and independent researchers, as well as by an international advisory board.
Our contributors are very often young French or French-speaking researchers who have carried out original historical research as part of their postgraduate studies, either in France or abroad. But we also regularly publish well-established figures, with international reputations in the field, such as Janet Bergstrom, André Gaudreault, Tom Gunning, Thomas Elsaesser, Leonardo Quaresima, all of whom have appeared in recent issues. The journal’s commitment to new as well as established authors reflects our belief that film history is a dynamic and rapidly evolving field of research with great potential for growth across the academic world.
As the official publication of the AFRHC, the journal 1895 Revue d’histoire du cinéma is published three times per year, usually comprising two general issues and one themed issue. Recently there have been themed issues on the animator Émile Cohl; the Film dʼArt company; the illustrators Lortac and OʼGalop and French animation of the 1910-1920. Our last themed issue was devoted to French comic cinema of the 1910s and featured an exclusive DVD of rare archive films. We also publish special issues, for example on individual filmmakers such as Abel Gance, René Clair, Germaine Dulac, Max Ophüls, Jacques Feyder, Jean Grémillon; as well as on broader topics such as “Music” and “Archives”.
Each general issue of 1895 Revue d’histoire du cinéma has four regular sections: “Point of view”; “Studies”; “Archive”; “Review”.
The “Point of view” section features a theoretical essay by a leading historian (e.g. André Gaudreault, Antoine de Baecque, Laurent Véray) reflecting on methodological questions in film history today.
In the “Studies” section, there are typically three extensive articles covering topics from all periods of film history, including the “pre-history” of cinema. To give an idea of the range of topics, some recent articles have discussed the “sonorisation” of Lumière films; the role of cinema in the World Exhibition of 1937; the philosophical writings of Jean Epstein; the films of Yves Klein; the use of colour in Italian post-war cinema; the impact of three-D in France in the 1950s; Kracauer’s sociology of cinema; optical toys; Soviet itinerant cinema; the scenarios for La Reine Margot…
In the “Archive” section, a researcher presents an archive collection or a set of archival documents that are either unpublished or hitherto unexamined. These might concern the history of a production company, the personal archives of a film composer or a film critic, the correspondence of a director or a producer, the making of a film, the functioning of state censorship…
Last but not least, one of the most important and popular sections of the journal is the “Review” section, featuring typically more than 100 pages of reports on current film history events – such as exhibitions, festivals and conferences – as well as critical reviews of books, journals and DVDs published in France, the USA, Italy, Germany, Russia, and elsewhere. This is an outstanding feature of 1895 Revue d’histoire du cinéma, which recognises the vital importance of publishing information and reviews about ongoing changes in our field of research, in order to maintain a healthy critical debate about the state of film history as a discipline.
The latest issue of 1895 REVUE DʼHISTOIRE DU CINEMA n°64, Autumn 2011, features a typically wide range of articles covering a variety of topics from different periods in film history understood in the broadest sense of the term: archival war images in documentaries; cinema and the Algerian War of Independence; educational cinema; direct cinema and cinéma-vérité; rare or unpublished texts by Lucien Descaves, Jean-Luc Godard, Georges Méliès.
The “Point of View” article, written by Laurent Véray, examines the use of archival war images from World War One in compilation films and television documentaries. He argues that increasingly these images are exploited with spectacular effect but in a totally decontextualised fashion.
In the “Studies” section of the journal, three articles address the relationship between cinema and cultural institutions or the State. Thus Pascal Laborderie discusses the policies of the Educational Film Office during the transition to sound; Sébastien Denis studies several film projects about the war in Algeria written in 1959-1960 and suppressed by the French Army and Ministry of Defence; and Séverine Graff analyses the heated debates around direct cinema versus cinéma-vérité that opposed Jean Rouch, Edgar Morin, Georges Sadoul and Joris Ivens against Robert Leacock, Mario Ruspoli, Pierre Schaeffer and Louis Marcorelles in Lyon in 1963.
In the “Archives” section of this issue, Jean-Paul Morel presents texts related to the “cinema of the people” written in 1914 by Lucien Descaves and others; while Michael Temple compares three scenarios by Marcel LʼHerbier for his abandoned adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s “Picture of Dorian Gray”. The section also features rare texts by Jean-Luc Godard from the Gazette du cinéma in 1951, and unpublished text by Georges Méliès about his “Joan of Arc” film from 1897.
Finally, accompanying the forthcoming publication of Philippe Esnault’s “Antoine cineaste”, Alain Carou pays tribute to the recently deceased film historian.
The “Review” section of the journal provides as usual a wide range of critical discussions of exhibitions and conferences, books and journals and DVDs, relating to films studies in general and film history in particular.
Subscription to 1895 REVUE DʼHISTOIRE DU CINEMA is reasonably priced with yearly rates at only 30 euros for students, 40 euros for standard members, and 60 euros for institutions. Single issues are available at 20 euros each. The annual subscription includes membership of the AFRHC, with voting rights at the annual General Assembly. You can join the AFRHC and subscribe to the journal at http://www.afrhc.fr/adhesion/.
Please note that the new AFRHC website can be found at www.afrhc.fr, with an email contact address [log in to unmask]; while the postal address remains: AFRHC, 15 rue Lakanal, 75015 Paris.
If you would like to be kept informed about the AFRHC’s activities and about film history publications and events in France and elsewhere, please subscribe to our free newsletter “cine-histoire” at http://www.afrhc.fr/lettre-dinformation/.
Michael Temple, on behalf of the Editorial Board of 1895 REVUE D’HISTOIRE DU CINEMA and the Executive Committee of the AFRHC.
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