Christian Lebrat
Radical Cinema
Author(s) Christian Lebrat
Format paperback book
Year 2021
Language(s) English
Pages 187 pages
Description
In this expanded edition of Cinéma Radical, first published in French in 2008, artist Christian Lebrat reflects on a cinema that "follows its own rules and questions the very definition of the medium."
There exists a cinema that develops off the beaten path and invents its own rules.
There exists a cinema that is independent of commerce as well as industry, independent of the art world as well as the fashion world. There exists a cinema in which each great film puts into play the very definition of cinema.
There exists a cinema that constantly renews forms, as well as the modalities of its existence.
There exists a cinema that constitutes an essential, unavoidable core.
It is this radical cinema that the author sets out to explore through the analysis of several major and exemplary works by the following filmmakers: Stan Brakhage – Robert Breer – Henri Chomette – Antonio De Bernardi – Marcel Duchamp – Germaine Dulac – Guy Fihman – Hollis Frampton – Georges Franju – Claudine Eizykman – Gérard Fromanger / Jean-Luc Godard – Isidore Isou – Ken Jacobs – Peter Kubelka – Fernand Léger – Maurice Lemaître – Man Ray – Giovanni Martedi – Jonas Mekas – Jean-Claude Rousseau – Pierre Rovere – Paul Sharits – Michael Snow – René Vautier…
Written over a period of some thirty years to accompany retrospectives, publications and exhibitions, the texts collected in this volume are grouped into four distinct chapters that begin with an interview in which the author explains the conditions of existence, teaching and development of experimental cinema.
English translation by Anna Doyle.