Reading Bazin Chronologically / by Nathan Douglas

Wikimedia Commons | CC-By-SA-4.0

Wikimedia Commons | CC-By-SA-4.0

I’m currently embarked on a systematic, chronological read through of Andre Bazin’s writing which is available in English. To that end, I drew up a quick chronological bibliography of the available translated works, which I’d like to share here for anyone else interested in such an endeavour.

Why read Bazin chronologically? I kind of fell into it last month while reading French Cinema of the Occupation and Resistance, which is a chronologically-arranged collection of essays and reviews from 1943 to 1946. Seeing the young Bazin’s ideas and language develop from piece to piece was compelling and much more graspable than the grab bag / greatest hits format of What is Cinema?’s English editions and similar collections. Bazin as a writer and thinker came alive for me in a way he hadn’t before - suddenly I could accompany him as he tried things out, circled back to ideas, and deepened his concepts.

The list isn’t complete - I don’t have a copy of The Cinema of Cruelty at present, so this list is lacking material collected there. Other one-off translations that have appeared in journals over the years may also be missing. I’ll do what I can to update this as I source new material. If I could not find the exact date or month of publication, I included essays at the end of their publication year (unless I could tie them to a French release date for a film being discussed).

I hope this is helpful to fellow Bazinians diving into the ocean of his thought in the year 2021.

Update - May 3, 2023: All essays from Essays on Chaplin (1985) have been added.

A Chronological Bibliography of Bazin in English

Legend:
W1 = What is Cinema 1
W2 = What is Cinema 2
FO = French Cinema of the Occupation and Resistance (1981)
CoC = The Cinema of Cruelty (1982)
CH1 = Cahiers du Cinema Vol. 1 - 1950s (Jim Hillier)
BaW = Bazin at Work (1997)
EoC = Essays on Chaplin (1985)
PH = Posthumous first publication / rearrangement / compilation

1943

  • Let’s Rediscover Cinema! (June 26, 1943) - FO

  • Pierre Prevert’s Adieu Leonard (Oct. 9, 1943)  FO

  • Panorama of the Past Year (Oct 23, 1943)  FO

  • For a Realist Esthetic (Nov. 8, 1943)  FO

  • Jean Delannoy’s L’Eternel Retour (Nov. 20, 1943)  FO

  • Marcel Carne’s Les Visiteurs du Soir / Robert Bresson’s Les Anges du Peche (Dec 1943)  FO

  • Pierre Blanchar’s Un Seul Amour (Dec. 4 1943)  FO

  • Toward a Cinematic Criticism (Dec. 11, 1943)  FO

1944

  • Jean Gremillon’s Le Ciel Est a Vous (Feb. 26, 1944)  FO

  • To Create a Public (Mar. 18, 1944)  FO

  • On Realism (Apr 15, 1944)  FO

  • The Art of Not Seeing Films (May 6, 1944)  FO

  • Marcel L’Herbier’s La Nuit Fantastique (May 20, 1944)  FO

  • The Cinema and Popular Art (June 25, 1944)  FO

  • The Balance Sheet for the 1943-1944 Season (July 8 1944)  FO

  • Reflections for a Vigil of Arms (Poesie July-Oct 1944)  FO

  • Paris Screens (Sept 10, 1944)  FO

  • The Future of French Cinema (Sept 17, 1944)  FO

  • Revival of Marcel Carne’s Quai des Brumes (Nov. 19 1944)  FO

1945

  • The Ontology of the Photographic Image - Jan 1945 - W1

  • Waiting for Hollywood (Feb 1, 1945)  FO

  • Marcel Carne’s Les Enfants du Paradis (March 30, 1945)  FO

  • Reply by Andre Malraux to Andre Bazin (Mar 8, 1946?)  FO

  • On L’Espoir, or Style in the Cinema - Aug 1945 -  FO

  • Shadow of a Doubt - Oct 3, 1945 - CoC

  • Julien Duvivier’s Untel Pere et Fils (Oct 23 1945)  FO

  • Christian-Jacque’s Boule de Suif (Oct 22 1945)  FO

  • Pastiche or Postiche, or Nothingness over a Mustache - Nov 1, 1945 - EoC

1946

  • Rene Chanas’ Le Jugement Dernier (Jan 1 1946) FO

  • Rene Clement’s La Bataille du Rail (Jan 31, 1946) FO

  • Henri Calef’s Jericho (March 21, 1946) FO

  • Battle of the Rails and Ivan the Terrible - April 1946 - BaW

  • The Crisis of French Cinema, or Scarface and the Gangster Film - ~April/May 1946 - BaW

  • On Why We Fight: History, Documentation, and the Newsreel - June 1946 - BaW

  • Yves Allegret’s Les Demons de l’Aube (May 12, 1946) FO

  • Louis Daquin’s Patrie (Oct 25, 1946) FO

  • The Cannes Festival of 1946 (Oct-Nov 1946) FO

  • Suspicion - Oct 29, 1946 - CoC

  • The Myth of Total Cinema - Nov 1946 - W1

  • The Entomology of the Pin-Up Girl - Dec 17, 1946 - W2

  • The Life and Death of Superimposition - ? 1946 - BaW

1947

  • The Technique of Citizen Kane - Feb 1947 - BaW

  • Farrebique, or the Paradox of Realism - April 1947 - BaW

  • Day of Wrath - Apr 1947 - CoC

  • Monsieur Verdoux or Charlot Martyred - Dec 30, 1947 - EoC

1948

  • An Aesthetic of Reality: Cinematic Realism and the Italian School of the Liberation - Jan 1948 - W2

  • The Myth of Monsieur Verdoux - Jan 1948 - W2

  • William Wyler, or the Jansenist of Directing - Feb-March 1948 - BaW

  • Notorious - March 16, 1948 - CoC

  • Sullivan’s Travels - May 1948 - CoC

  • Stroheim Lost and Found (Dance of Death) - June 1948 - CoC

  • Adaptation, or the Cinema as Digest - July 1948 - BaW

  • The Last Vacation, or The Style is the Man Himself - July 1948 - BaW

  • The Outlaw - Aug 1948 - W2

  • Charlie Chaplin - ? 1948 - W1

  • La Terra Trema - Dec 1948 - W2

1949

  • The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek - Feb 1949 - CoC

  • Erich von Stroheim: Form, Uniform, and Cruelty - Apr 1949 - CoC

  • Germany, Year Zero - May 1949 - BaW

  • Hail the Conquering Hero - May 1949 - CoC

  • Immortal Charlot! - June 21, 1949 - EoC

  • Painting and Cinema - Oct 1949 - W1

  • Bicycle Thief - Nov 1949 - W2

1950

  • Pan Shot of Hitchcock - Jan 23, 1950 - CoC

  • Book - Orson Welles: A Critical View - Jan 1950

  • The Myth of Stalin in the Soviet Cinema - Aug 1950 - BaW

  • The Destiny of Jean Gabin - Oct 1, 1950 - W2

1951

  • Cruelty and Love in Los Olvidados - Jan? 1951 - CoC

  • Cinema and Theology - Feb 1951 - BaW

  • A Saint Becomes a Saint Only After the Fact (Heaven over the Marshes) - May 1951 - BaW

  • Mad Wednesday - May 1951 - CoC

  • Le Journal d’un cure de campagne and the Stylistics of Robert Bresson - June 1951 - W1

  • The Thirty-Nine Steps - June 17, 1951 - CoC

  • Theater and Cinema (Part I) - June 1951 - W1

  • Theater and Cinema (Part II) - July-Aug 1951 - W1

  • M. Ripois, with or without Nemesis - Aug/Sept 1951 - BaW

  • De Sica: Metteur en Scene - 1951 - W2

1952

  • In Defense of Mixed Cinema - (book chapter in Cinema, un oeil ouvert sur le monde) - Jan 1952 - W1

  • Strangers on a Train - Jan 10, 1952 - CoC

  • Must We Believe in Hitchcock? - Jan 17, 1952 - CoC

  • The Road to Hope - Feb 1952 - BaW

  • The Passion of Joan of Arc - March 1952 - CoC

  • The Lady Vanishes - April 10, 1952 - CoC

  • Rashomon - April 24, 1952 - CoC

  • Forbidden Games - May 1952 - BaW

  • Umberto D - June 1952 - CH1

  • I Confess - July 2, 1952 - CoC

  • Two Cents’ Worth of Hope - July 1952 - BaW

  • Subida al Cielo - Aug 1952 - CoC

  • Umberto D: A Great Work - Oct 1952 - W2

  • Limelight, or the Death of Moliere - Nov 1952 - W2

  • If Charlot Hadn’t Died - Nov 1952 - EoC

1953

  • The Western, or the American Film par excellence - preface to a book - Jan 1953 - W2

  • Susana - Jan 15, 1953 - CoC

  • The Grandeur of Limelight - Apr 1953 - W2

  • Europe ‘51 - June? 1953 - BaW

  • Niagara - Sept 1953 - BaW

  • Will CinemaScope Save the Film Industry? - Oct 1953 - BaW

1954

  • El - June 10, 1954 - CoC

  • The Cybernetics of Andre Cayatte - June 1954 - BaW

  • Interview with Luis Buñuel (with Jacques Doniol-Valcroze) - June 1954 - CoC

  • Hitchcocks vs. Hitchcock - Oct. 1954 - CoC

  • Time Validates Modern Times - Oct 13, 1954 - EoC

1955

  • The Style is the Genre (Les Diaboliques) - Jan 1955 - BaW

  • Dial M for Murder - Feb. 13, 1955 - CoC

  • The Lesson of Japanese Cinema Style - March 1955 - CoC

  • Rear Window - April 1955? - CoC

  • La Strada - May 1955 - BaW

  • Cruel Naples (Gold of Naples) - June 1955 - BaW

  • The Festival Viewed as a Religious Order - June 1955 - PDF

  • In Defense of Rossellini - Aug 1955 - W2

  • The Evolution of the Western - Dec 1955 - W2

  • Seven Samurai - Sept 1955 - CoC

  • To Catch a Thief - Dec. 29, 1955 - CoC

1956

  • Beauty of a Western (The Man from Laramie) - Jan 1956 - CH1

  • Ordet - Jan 1956 - CoC

  • Senso - Feb 1956 - BaW

  • Il Bidone, or the Road to Salvation Reconsidered - March 1956 - BaW

  • Cela s’Appelle l’Aurore - May 1956 - CoC

  • A Bergsonian Film: The Picasso Mystery - June 1956 - BaW

  • Lifeboat - June 14, 1956 - CoC

  • Death in This Garden - Sept 1956? - CoC

  • The Man Who Knew Too Much - Oct 18, 1956 - CoC

1957

  • The Death of Humphrey Bogart - Feb 1957 - CH1

  • On Kurosawa’s Ikiru - March 1957 - CH1 / CoC

  • On the politique des auteurs - April 1957 - CH1

  • Marginal Notes on Eroticism in the Cinema - Apr 1957 - W2

  • (Bazin + Round Table) Six Characters in Search of auteurs - May 1957 - CH1

  • An Exemplary Western (Seven Men from Now) - Aug-Sept 1957 - CH1

  • The Profound Originality of I Vitelloni - Oct 1957 - BaW

  • The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz - Oct 1957 - CoC

  • A King in New York - Oct 31, 1957 - EoC

  • Cabiria: The Voyage to the End of Neorealism - Nov 1957 - W2

1958

  • High Infidelity (The Bridge on the River Kwai) - Feb 1958 - BaW

  • Hitchcock by Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol - Sept 1958 - CoC

1959 / PH

  • Evolution of the Language of Cinema - (composite of 3 x 1950s’ articles) - W1

  • The Virtues and Limitations of Montage - (2 x articles from 1953 & 1957) - W1

  • Cinema and Exploration - (2 x articles 1953 + 1956) - W1

  • The Case of Marcel Pagnol - PH, 1959 - BaW

  • Book - Jean Renoir - PH