André Bazin est parfois appelé « l’inventeur de la critique cinématographique ». Des générations entières de critiques et de cinéastes, notamment ceux associés à la Nouvelle Vague, sont redevables à ses écrits sur le cinéma. Le film ouvre une « fenêtre sur le monde », selon Bazin. Ses écrits sont également importants pour le développement de la politique des auteurs. Bazin : « Avouons-le, le western n’est pas pris au sérieux ! Assurément, il ne manque pas d’intellectuels pour déclarer qu’ils adorent les westerns. On entend de vieux messieurs distingués le proclamer bien haut. Mais sans même chercher ce que peut comporter d’affectation cette profession de foi (exigez des titres et vous verrez que ces prétendus « amateurs de westerns » en voient un ou deux par an !), on peut être quasiment assuré qu’elle est fondée sur des malentendus. »

Just like last year, a coronavirus edition of Bologna’s unsurpassed Cinema Ritrovato festival took place this summer. The festival is unique for its broad focus on the history of film, showing new restorations and recent (re)discoveries rather than new films.

In slechts drie jaar tijd ontstond het gehele oeuvre van Jan Decorte (1950) als filmmaker. Hij regisseerde het televisiespel Nature morte (1976), de langspeelfilms Pierre (1976) en Hedda Gabler (1978), en de televisiefilm Gombrowicz: voorvallen, avonturen (1977). Na de voltooiing van deze films maakte Decorte geen films meer; hij had naar eigen zeggen genoeg van productionele rompslomp en filmcritici die zijn werk niet serieus wensten te nemen. (...) Ook de Poolse auteur Witold Gombrowicz (1904-1969), onderwerp van Decortes televisiefilm, kreeg amper bijval van binnen- en buitenlandse critici en werd geregeld gemakzuchtig aan de kant geschoven.

André Bazin wordt weleens de “uitvinder van de filmkritiek” genoemd. Hele generaties filmcritici en filmmakers, niet in het minst die verbonden met de Nouvelle Vague, zijn schatplichtig aan zijn schrijfsels over film. Film opent een “venster op de wereld”, aldus Bazin. Zijn geschriften zouden ook belangrijk zijn voor de ontwikkeling van de auteurstheorie. Bazin: “Chris Markers Dimanche à Pékin duurt helaas maar twintig minuten en de beeldenoogst lijkt magerder dan die van Pedrazzini. Maar het beeld beperkt zich hier niet tot zichzelf. De waarde ervan wordt bepaald door twee extra dimensies: de montage en het commentaar.”

“Alongside his activities as a writer, critic, photographer, scriptwriter, filmmaker, photo editor, media artist and cartoonist/blogger, Chris Marker has recently also begun frequenting Second Life, where his avatar bears the name Sergei Murasaki. Under this guise, Marker consented to a rare online interview, where he advances the notion that he never even considered himself to be a filmmaker. Ja-mais. Furthermore, he thinks the label of ‘multi-media artist’ sounds altogether too contemporary. Rather, Marker prefers to be characterized as an artisanal bricoleur, albeit one who always puts his own unique signature on everything he tinkers with.”

Staring Back brings together about two hundred black-and-white photo portraits produced by Chris Marker from 1952 to 2006. It arose unforeseen (but what route better, given how we believe we’ve come to know him?) from an exchange of letters.

Atteyat Al-Abnoudy, a pioneer of documentary filmmaking, has been making the voices of the poor heard since the 1970s. We meet her when the first Women’s Film Festival is paying tribute to her. (...) Some call her “the poet of the documentary”. Others criticize her for portraying the poor, the bratty children, the run-down places and the abject sides of reality. Likewise, Egyptian television, the only means of broadcasting her work, asks her to disclaim her inventories of misery in order to benefit from funding. She retorts to her detractors: “You must know how to reveal reality with its dark and luminous sides, without hiding an admiration for the total commitment of the beings whose lives meet History.”

We listen to Atteyat Al-Abnoudy speak in a loud voice about her vision for art, life and reality; and we get to know her inimitable, riotous character in return. Atteyat Al-Abnoudy: “I don’t care for the prizes as much as I care for my films to be shown in my own country, because I am offering pure Egyptian cinema to the Egyptian people, and I am addressing the existence of the authentic Egyptian human. Regardless of how many prizes I win around the world, their entire sum is not as worthy as one single glance of a pair of Egyptian eyes that give my films their glory and true worth.”

Atteyat Al-Abnoudy, a young Egyptian filmmaker, has won the Grand Prix du film documentaire in Grenoble and the International Federation of Film Critics prize for Horse of Mud. And for her film The Sad Song of Touha, she has won the Novais Teixeira prize: a prize founded in memory of our colleague who died last year and who was much loved by French critics. We met Atteyat Al-Abnoudy before she was awarded these important prizes, important for the direction she wishes to give to her work. Al-Abnoudy: “When I start a film, I don’t think about its form. When I became friends with the people in the factory, the only way for me as a filmmaker to express my feelings for them was to make a film.”