Thinker · TH-0059
André Bazin
André Bazin was a French film critic and theorist, co-founder in 1951 of the journal Cahiers du cinéma and a decisive influence on the…
1918 – 1958 · Angers, Paris
Traditions: Continental
André Bazin was a French film critic and theorist, co-founder in 1951 of the journal Cahiers du cinéma and a decisive influence on the French New Wave. In 'The Ontology of the Photographic Image' he argued that photography and film differ from painting because the image is produced mechanically from the thing itself. From this photographic realism he championed long takes and deep focus, which preserve the continuity of space and leave the viewer free to interpret.
Key ideas
- The photographic image has a causal, not merely resembling, relation to its object.
- Cinema's distinctive power is to record reality, not only to represent it.
- Long takes and deep-focus composition respect the ambiguity and continuity of the real.
- Montage that dictates meaning can betray what the camera's realism offers.
Major works
- "Ontologie de l'image photographique" (The Ontology of the Photographic Image, 1945)
- Qu'est-ce que le cinéma? (What Is Cinema?, 1958–1962)
In the conversation
- Debate A documentary can stage a scene and still be telling the truth
- Discussion Does a cut make an argument? Notes from an edit suite in Tehran
- Reading group Reading group: Bazin’s What Is Cinema?, starting with ‘The Ontology of the Photographic Image’
In the Coordinates
The questions of philosophy where André Bazin takes a place, from The Coordinates of Thought.
- 6.32 Philosophy of Film and Media How do images argue?