André S. Labarthe

Insight into the master’s working mind.

In this two-part interview, Eric Rohmer develops some of the ideas underlying how he sees and makes films. Surrounded by his precious notebooks, cassettes and screen tests, he answers the questions put by his attentive and amused interviewer, Jean Douchet. He emphasises the role of German philosophy and music in his films as well as the part played by his French New Wave contemporaries. Turning to the random nature of life, a central theme in his films, he presents his principles and delivers a delectable lesson on the theory and practice of filmmaking, his writing methods, how he works with sound and his actors…Read More »

Born in 1942, grand-son of Sicilian immigrants, Martin Scorsese made his first trial in 1964 before beginning his first feature film, “Who’s that knocking my door?”, Which is largely autobiographical. In 1970, he collaborated on “Woodstock” and joined Hollywood where Roger Corman says he “Boxcar Bertha” saga time of the Depression. “Mean Street” reveals to the public in 1973; he takes in this film introspection Youth Little Italy, wedged between the Mafia, the American dream and fantasy of a Catholic education. Read More »

Each documentary deals with a filmmaker, even a cinema school (the New Wave …), or a particular issue related to cinema (Critic and cinema …). The choice of directors, as well as the issues addressed, are very impressed by the vision of the Cahiers du Cinéma, of which André S. Labarthe is one of the former editors, Janine Bazin being the wife of André Bazin, founder of the magazine.Read More »

Here are the two documentaries about Jerry Lewis from the collection Cinéastes de notre temps. The first part (1968) is directed by André Labarthe, and the second part (1971) by Robert Benayoun.Read More »

In an hour’s chat with two French interviewers, Sternberg laments the failure of critics and the public to truly understand his work.Read More »

Colour, form, area this is the formula of the greatest pioneer of abstract painting. Kandinsky came to art late in life, but his impact through Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) and Bauhaus paved the way for modern art. In 1913, he created one of the first abstract pictures, the theoretical basis of which was inspired by his essay Über das Geistige in der Kunst (On the Spiritual in Art). Accompanied by Mussorgsky’s Pictures From An Exhibition, Labarthe goes on a sensual journey which makes the soul resound with colours and forms.Read More »