Serge Daney (1944–1992), one of the most influential critics of the 20th century, was described by Jean-Luc Godard as the end of criticism as he understood it. In conjunction with the publication of a new eponymous issue, available in English and French, on the writings and ideas of Daney, ICA (London) and Sabzian present ‘Serge Daney and the Promise of Cinema’, twelve films reflecting his philosophically rich, wide-ranging criticism, fueled by a passionate belief in a cinephilic internationalism. The dates for the individual screenings and programs can be found here.
All the screenings will be preceded by guest introductions.
Tickets can be ordered on the ICA website.
Growing up in Paris, Serge Daney developed an early passion for cinema. His first article appeared in Visages du cinéma in 1962, and by 1964, he had joined the editorial team of Cahiers du cinéma, becoming editor-in-chief in 1973; here, he helped steer the magazine back towards film criticism after a more politically driven period. In 1981, he moved to Libération, broadening his scope to encompass television and other media, and a decade later, he co-founded Trafic in response to cinema’s shifting intellectual landscape.
Throughout his life, Daney was a keen traveller and found solace in the notion of voyaging “without luggage, totally self-sufficient in his dispossession.”1 Travelling involved embracing the idea of being reduced to one’s own body, “of leaving no images, no trace: being clandestine in the world”;2 perhaps this explains his aversion to taking pictures of the places he visited, preferring to send pre-existing images as postcards to his mother in Paris.
As a country that was “still missing” from his map, cinema embodied a deeply felt promise of universality for Daney. He longed for a shared imaginary space through cinema, a global citizenship of viewers, where images connect us without requiring us to be the same, allowing us to envisage ourselves somehow in relation to the world; a way of taking without owning, of belonging without opting in.
Despite his global outlook and reputation, Daney’s writings long remained unavailable in English, existing only on the periphery through “unofficial” online translations or edited collections. It was not until 2022, with the publication of the first volume of The Cinema House and the World, that an English-language publisher took a chance on the critic. This was followed by a translation of La Rampe (Footlights) and Serge Daney and Queer Cinephilia, the first scholarly volume about Daney in English. Hopefully, these publications will herald the beginning of a truly international journey for his thinking and writing.
Last year, Daney would have celebrated his eightieth birthday. We seized the opportunity to reflect on the ongoing resonance of his writings and ideas through ten films. The programme has been curated based on a combination of considerations relating to the films and Daney’s texts about them. These include the films’ impact on shaping Daney’s cinematic worldview, the recurrence and prominence of the filmmakers throughout Daney’s writings, the variety of films in their geographical origins and modes of expression, and the range of publications Daney wrote about during his career. The sheer output and quality of Daney’s writings from a young age mean our brief programme is necessarily non-exhaustive in representing his array of interests and inclinations. Hopefully, in this modest screening programme, the contours of Daney’s cinematic travelogue will come into view – one that reminds us of the promise of that missing country called cinema: an imaginary space that is nonetheless home to “true inhabitants who [speak] the same language.”3
This programme is presented in collaboration with Arta Barzanji and Gerard-Jan Claes, who edited and compiled for Sabzian the issue ‘Serge Daney and the Promise of Cinema, available in English and French, featuring contributions from critics, academics, and translators from around the world.4
PART OF Sabzian Events