‘Servir avec désintéressement la cause du cinéma français’: Julien Duvivier’s film columns in Cinémonde (1946–1947)

Abstract

In 1946, French film director Julien Duvivier was invited by the popular film magazine Cinémonde to write a series of weekly columns and give his anonymous views on current filmmaking policy in France and the role of the popular film critic and rate new film releases. Writing under the pseudonym ‘Platon' between October 1946 and February 1947, Duvivier wrote fascinating interventions that reveal a great deal about his own aesthetic, formal and ideological preoccupations and his proposed direction of travel for France’s post-war film industry. This article will demonstrate how the director provides a snapshot of a domestic film culture grappling with new concerns. It will argue that he deftly articulates a set of positions that contribute to broader discussions around the direction of the post-war French film industry. And it will show how Duvivier proposes a particular view of cinematic realism that combines different aesthetic and ideological strands.