A NOUVEAU DISPONIBLE !

ÉCRITS SUR LE CINÉMA (1919-1937) par Germaine Dulac Textes réunis et présentés par Prosper Hillairet REEDITION en E-BOOK english below

L’actuelle publication au format électronique reprend l’édition de 1994, aujourd’hui épuisée, avec une nouvelle préface qui met en perspective l’importance et l’actualité de Germaine Dulac.

Pionnière du cinéma, Germaine Dulac (1882-1942) est une des grandes figures de l’Avant-Garde française des Années 20. Personnalité importante, elle initiera et sera à la tête de nombreuses organisations et, parallèlement, mènera une activité inlassable pour la défense des droits des femmes. Dans ses réalisations, Dulac expérimente les nouvelles possibilités d’expression du cinéma.

Elle réalisera une vingtaine de films à partir de 1916. La Souriante Mme Beudet (1923) et La Coquille et le clergyman (1927), d’après Antonin Artaud, sont parmi ses films marquants. Les Ecrits sur le cinéma présentent une autre facette de la cinéaste et de la féministe, la Dulac écrivaine, théoricienne, conférencière. La publication reprend les principaux textes, entretiens, interventions, où Dulac développe, dans un style passionné, ses conceptions du cinéma. Elle y défend un cinéma sans entraves, de création, essayant de tracer les spécificités de ce nouvel art autour du maître mot de l’avant-garde française : le cinéma comme Mouvement. Y sont abordées toutes les grandes questions de cette époque comme l’apparition du parlant ou de la couleur, l’éducation par le film et plus généralement une réflexion sur l’image et la modernité qu’était alors le cinéma. Cette réflexion sur la représentation, véritable plongée dans les théories cinématographiques des Années 20, n’a rien perdu de sa vigueur ni de sa cohérence à l’heure où émergent de nouvelles technologies et pratiques de l’image.

La presse en avait parlé : « Volume constitué et judicieusement présenté par Prosper Hillairet. Il vient combler une lacune. » Alain Virmaux, Jeune cinéma, n° 232, juin 95

« Il est enfin possible de redécouvrir la fraîcheur de pensée d’une véritable pionnière à l’égal de Louis Delluc et de Jean Epstein, dont certains thèmes ont pour écho les théories les plus contemporaines. » Pascal Auger, Cinémathèque, n°8, automne 95 « Les historiens ont beaucoup évoqué les écrits de Germaine Dulac, ils sont aujourd’hui disponibles pour tous. » Libération, 18 mai 1995 http://www.paris-experimental.fr/project/dulac/ GERMAINE DULAC WRITINGS ON CINEMA (1919-1937)

English translation by Scott Hammen

Foreword by Tami M. Williams New preface by Prosper Hillairet

E-BOOK EDITION IN ENGLISH The present publication in e-book format is an english translation from the original 1994 edition, now out-of-print, with a new preface by PROSPER HILLAIRET that puts DULAC’s importance and current relevance into perspective, and a foreword by TAMI M. WILLIAMS, president of Domitor – the International Society for the Study of Early Cinema and author of Germaine Dulac: A Cinema of Sensations.

These seminal texts by pioneering filmmaker and feminist Germaine Dulac will be of great interest to film scholars and cinephiles alike. From theoretical essays on the avant-garde to those asserting the value of documentaries for society, Germaine Dulac determines to elevate cinema as art and to engage the public in the process. Maryann De Julio, Professor of French, Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies, Kent State University

I am delighted to find that Germaine Dulac’s important writings on the cinema are now available in English and accessible on line. When I first began work on this seminal feminist filmmaker 45 years ago almost all of her critical theoretical writing and all but two of her films were inaccessible. At the time, Prosper Hillairet’s magisterial book published by Paris Expérimental provided a much-needed collection of Dulac’s texts, but they were all in French. Paris Expérimental has done us all a great favor by updating, translating, and putting everything on e-book so that we all may see the visionary brilliance of this pioneering feminist filmmaker. Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Rutgers University, author of To Desire Differently: Feminism and The French Cinema.

Germaine Dulac is among the most important figures of French silent cinema, even world cinema tout court. An adventurous filmmaker, subtle theoretician, and powerful feminist with a non- conforming sexuality, she bridged ‘Impressionist’ and Surrealist cinema, ending her career with documentary films in the politically turbulent 1930s. Her writings, made available in English for the first time in an excellent translation by Scott Hammen, are simply a must-have for any scholar or lover of cinema as well as for scholars of gender and sexuality. Paris Expérimental and Prosper Hillairet were instrumental in the revival of Dulac’s standing in world cinema history, and they are to be lauded for offering her complete writings to English- speaking readers. Dulac is a giant–as her main specialist in the US, professor Tami M. Williams has advocated for decades–and it’s time her writings and her films were taken into account. Christophe Wall-Romana, Associate professor, University of Minnesota.

A pioneer of cinema, Germaine Dulac (1882-1942) is one of the major figures of the 1920s French Avant-Garde. Hugely influential, she founded and directed numerous organisations and, in parallel, was a tireless activist in the defense of women’s rights. In her films, Dulac explored new possiblities of expression in cinema. She directed over twenty films starting in 1916. Among her notable films are La Souriante Mme Beudet (1923) and La Coquille et le Clergyman (The Seashell and the Clergyman, 1927), from a scenario by Antonin Artaud. Writings on Cinema presents another side of her multi-faceted career as filmmaker and feminist: Dulac as writer, theoretician, and public speaker. The book brings together her principal texts, interviews, and speeches, where, in her passionate style, Dulac presents her concept of cinema. She argues for a cinema of liberation, of unbounded creativity, striving to define the inate qualities of the new art form around a key concept of the French avant-garde: cinema as motion. She addresses the major issues of the era such as the coming of sound and color, film as an educational tool, and, above all, how the cinematic image is a reflection of the modern age. This reflection on the concept of representation, an in-depth exploration of the cinematic theories of the 1920s, has lost none of its force and relevance today as new technologies and approaches to image-making emerge. http://www.paris-experimental.fr/project/dulac-english/