Cinéfilos y cineastas: de Cahiers du cinéma a la Nouvelle vague

Abstract

In the 50s, the journal Cahiers du cinéma was a school for the young cinephiles that would later become the filmmakers of the Nouvelle vague: Truffaut, Godard, Rivette, Rohmer, Chabrol. Faithful to Giraudoux’s statement, “there are no works, there are only authors”, their critical perspective came to be known as the politique des auteurs: a controversial framework to justify the defense of some selected directors. This article studies the efects of the politique des auteurs in two directions: facing backwards, because it acknowledges the creative quality in some unpredicted filmmakers and, facing forward, because it prepares the platform to launch the movies that these young cinephiles will make shortly afterwards.