The Defense and Critique of Cinematic Modernism

Abstract

This chapter shifts the focus from Cahiers’ re-reading of classical films to the journal’s response to works of cinematic modernism. As in the earlier chapter, the theoretical framework used to treat these films involves a combination of Althusserian Marxism and Freudian psychoanalysis, but whereas the analysis of commercially produced classical cinema entailed “symptomatic” readings, the critical reception of modernist films had to acknowledge the director’s own awareness of the possibility of critical counter-interpretations. This optic was used on an array of filmmakers, including Luis Buñuel, Jerry Lewis, Federico Fellini, the Taviani Brothers and young filmmakers such as Philippe Garrel, Carmelo Bene and Bernardo Bertolucci. Finally, Jean-Pierre Oudart and Serge Daney’s major, Lacan-inspired critique of Luchino Visconti’s Morte a Venezia, “Le Nom de l’auteur” is discussed.