Andre Bazin

About Andre Bazin

Who is it?: Film Critic
Birth Day: April 18, 1918
Birth Place: Angers, France, French
Alma mater: Ecole Normale Supérieurede Saint-Cloud
Occupation: Film critic, film theorist

Andre Bazin

Andre Bazin was born on April 18, 1918 in Angers, France, French, is Film Critic. Andre Bazin was an influential French film critic and film theorist who revolutionized the field of film criticism with his works. He lived during a time when a film was considered simply as a medium of entertainment and was not accorded the status of a piece of art. He helped to change the public perspective regarding films through his simple yet strong technique of film criticism. During his days, film criticism was limited to a simple description and evaluation of the film in question. It was Bazin who elevated film criticism to a serious discussion of film as an art form, focusing not just on the content, but also on the techniques of film making used. Understanding cinema as an art form seems to be a peculiar career option he had chosen given that in his young age he had no interest in any form of art whatsoever. As a teenager he was a brilliant student and a voracious reader. He was a big animal lover and had a huge collection of lizards and snakes in his house. Initially he aspired to be a teacher but the outbreak of the World War II shattered his dreams. Fate led him to a totally unrelated vocation, film criticism, which ironically became his area of expertise.
Andre Bazin is a member of Miscellaneous

Does Andre Bazin Dead or Alive?

As per our current Database, Andre Bazin has been died on 11 November 1958(1958-11-11) (aged 40)\nNogent-sur-Marne, France.

🎂 Andre Bazin - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday

When Andre Bazin die, Andre Bazin was 40 years old.

Popular As Andre Bazin
Occupation Miscellaneous
Age 40 years old
Zodiac Sign Taurus
Born April 18, 1918 (Angers, France, French)
Birthday April 18
Town/City Angers, France, French
Nationality French

🌙 Zodiac

Andre Bazin’s zodiac sign is Taurus. According to astrologers, Taurus is practical and well-grounded, the sign harvests the fruits of labor. They feel the need to always be surrounded by love and beauty, turned to the material world, hedonism, and physical pleasures. People born with their Sun in Taurus are sensual and tactile, considering touch and taste the most important of all senses. Stable and conservative, this is one of the most reliable signs of the zodiac, ready to endure and stick to their choices until they reach the point of personal satisfaction.

🌙 Chinese Zodiac Signs

Andre Bazin was born in the Year of the Horse. Those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Horse love to roam free. They’re energetic, self-reliant, money-wise, and they enjoy traveling, love and intimacy. They’re great at seducing, sharp-witted, impatient and sometimes seen as a drifter. Compatible with Dog or Tiger.

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Biography/Timeline

1918

Bazin was born in Angers, France, in 1918. He died in 1958, age 40, of leukemia.

1920

The long-held standard view of Bazin's critical system is that he argued for films that depicted what he saw as "objective reality" (such as documentaries and films of the Italian neorealism school) and Directors who made themselves "invisible" (such as Howard Hawks). He advocated the use of deep focus (Orson Welles), wide shots (Jean Renoir) and the "shot-in-depth", and preferred what he referred to as "true continuity" through mise-en-scène over experiments in editing and visual effects. This placed him in opposition to film theory of the 1920s and 1930s, which emphasized how the cinema could manipulate reality. The concentration on objective reality, deep focus, and lack of montage are linked to Bazin's belief that the interpretation of a film or scene should be left to the spectator. He watched film as personally as he expected the Director to undertake it. His personal friendships with many Directors he wrote about also furthered his analysis of their work. He became a central figure not only in film critique, but in bringing about certain collaborations, as well. Bazin also preferred long takes to montage editing. He believed that less was more, and that narrative was key to great film.

1943

Bazin started to write about film in 1943 and was a co-founder of the renowned film magazine Cahiers du cinéma in 1951, along with Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca. Bazin was a major force in post-World War II film studies and criticism. He edited Cahiers until his death, and a four-volume collection of his writings was published posthumously, covering the years 1958 to 1962 and titled Qu'est-ce que le cinéma? (What is Cinema?). A selection from this collection was translated into English and published in two volumes in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They became mainstays of film courses in the English-speaking world, but were never updated or revised. In 2009, the Canadian publisher Caboose, taking advantage of more favourable Canadian copyright laws, compiled fresh translations of some of the key essays from the collection in a single-volume edition. With annotations by translator Timothy Barnard, this became the only corrected and annotated edition of these writings in any language.

1954

Bazin, who was influenced by personalism, believed that a film should represent a director's personal vision. This idea had a pivotal importance in the development of the auteur theory, the manifesto for which François Truffaut's article, "A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema", was published by his mentor Bazin in Cahiers in 1954. Bazin also is known as a proponent of "appreciative criticism", the notion that only critics who like a film should review it, thus encouraging constructive criticism.

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