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Footlights: Critical Notebook 1970-1982
The early essays of the most influential French film critic of the post-68 period.
The Footlights (1983) was the first book by Serge Daney, a film critic admired in his lifetime by Gilles Deleuze and Jean-Luc Godard and recognized since his premature death in 1992 as the most important French writer on film after André Bazin. The Footlights stands apart in Daney’s body of work as the only collection of his essays he conceived of as a book, organizing his seminal pieces from Cahiers du Cinéma by theme and linking them with original texts that reflect in a personal voice on the doubts, battles, and illuminations of a generation of film lovers inspired by the explorations of Lacanian theory and roused by the collective aspirations of Maoist dogma. In pieces on fellow travelers Godard and Straub/Huillet, on films ranging from Pasolini’s Saló to Spielberg’s Jaws , and on the difference between film language and television discourse, Daney offers a definitive portrait of an era of radical hope and disappointment.
The Footlights (1983) was the first book by Serge Daney, a film critic admired in his lifetime by Gilles Deleuze and Jean-Luc Godard and recognized since his premature death in 1992 as the most important French writer on film after André Bazin. The Footlights stands apart in Daney’s body of work as the only collection of his essays he conceived of as a book, organizing his seminal pieces from Cahiers du Cinéma by theme and linking them with original texts that reflect in a personal voice on the doubts, battles, and illuminations of a generation of film lovers inspired by the explorations of Lacanian theory and roused by the collective aspirations of Maoist dogma. In pieces on fellow travelers Godard and Straub/Huillet, on films ranging from Pasolini’s Saló to Spielberg’s Jaws , and on the difference between film language and television discourse, Daney offers a definitive portrait of an era of radical hope and disappointment.
- GenresFilm
216 pages, Paperback
Published December 12, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 22, 2024
stray thoughts:
- very good reading of Salò and Jaws
-occasionally a bit goofy with the french theory terms ('warmachine" especially)
- popular academic criticism really is dead, especially now with the final issue of CinemaScope released. no one is operating on a level like this for general audiences. as a counter you might say, "well, movies aren't really operating on the same level for general audiences" which I think is only half true, great films are released every year just not by Hollywood. Daney's serious treatment of Jaws is just a reminder that big Hollywood blockbusters used to have something to them. Can't really imagine someone like Daney today writing like this about any blockbuster with the same weight as they treat a Straub Huillet film.
- very good reading of Salò and Jaws
-occasionally a bit goofy with the french theory terms ('warmachine" especially)
- popular academic criticism really is dead, especially now with the final issue of CinemaScope released. no one is operating on a level like this for general audiences. as a counter you might say, "well, movies aren't really operating on the same level for general audiences" which I think is only half true, great films are released every year just not by Hollywood. Daney's serious treatment of Jaws is just a reminder that big Hollywood blockbusters used to have something to them. Can't really imagine someone like Daney today writing like this about any blockbuster with the same weight as they treat a Straub Huillet film.
January 15, 2025
Daney is excellent, heavily recommend for anyone looking to get more serious about studying film. Heavily influenced by lacan which is cool by me. Looking forward to future rereads as I gain more experience reading relatively complicated film analysis.
August 27, 2024
Most illuminating book on cinema and postmodernism.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews