Cahiers du Cinema
The world’s most famous film magazine, a piece of film history in itself, founded by André Bazin, influenced directly or indirectly by Francois Truffaut, Eric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard and other nouvelle vague people, is in danger again.
The question is – again – money. The majority share holder, the daily newspaper le Monde, wants to sell because of a deficit of more than 600000€ and not more than 26700 copies sold. Cahiers du Cinema has according to Libération, where I read the story yesterday (30th of September), several potential buyers who are interested to continue the magazine’s competent look at the unique films of the world.
More than any other publication the magazine has reflected the changing times and the changing looks at cinema. Back in the beginning of the 70’es, where it came out four times per year, without any photos, without any reference to new films, it was a marxist magazine that wrote about films in a way that for instance Truffaut expressed the opinion that he did not understand what they wrote about his films. At another time, in the mid sixties, the praise of American cinema became too overwhelming and the owner was forced to sell and the magazine, that started in 1951, got back its liberty.
