Ideological Effects of the Basic Cinematographic Apparatus

The debate over cinema and ideology let loose by the spectacular political events in France of May 1968 has transformed Cahiers du Cinema and much of French film thought. Baudry's article, which appeared in 1970 in Cinethique (No. 7-8; translated by permission) is characteristic of the attempts that have been made to criticize the ideological underpinnings of previous film thought, and to ground new work in a more self-conscious and self-critical set of assumptions. This questioning mode of thought turns from what it considers outmoded idealist of phenomenological doctrines toward the type of radical psychoanalytic thinking done by Lacan and toward an explicit sociopolitical analysis of the film-making and film-viewing process. Baudry's article covers a broad range, and at times his points are made in an allusive or even elusive way. Certain key terms and usages have been glossed in the notes. A few irreducible obscurities remain, which the French postal strike has prevented us from clarifying. The article is presented here as a central document in the recent evolution of French film thought.