---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Temple <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 2012/1/25
Subject: Message about AFRHC & "1895 Revue d'histoire du cinéma"
To: [log in to unmask]



Message from Michael Temple, Birkbeck, University of London, on behalf of
the AFRHC (association française de recherche sur l’histoire du cinéma):



Have you ever read *1895 Revue d’histoire du cinéma*, the only
French-language journal devoted to the study of film history?



Perhaps you have looked at it occasionally in libraries or specialised
bookshops. Perhaps you have never even heard of it at all. Whatever the
case, we would like to tell you a little more about *1895 Revue d’histoire
du cinéma*, the journal of the French association of film historians.



Here is a presentation of the main features of the journal, followed by an
outline of our latest issue, number 64, Autumn 2011.



The guiding principle of the journal is to combine original primary
research with methodological innovation. We seek to discover fresh
approaches and to raise new questions in relation to sources and/or objects
that have not previously been brought to light. The scientific rigour that
we aim for is underwritten by the editorial team, comprising academic
experts and independent researchers, as well as by an international
advisory board.



Our contributors are very often young French or French-speaking researchers
who have carried out original historical research as part of their
postgraduate studies, either in France or abroad. But we also regularly
publish well-established figures, with international reputations in the
field, such as Janet Bergstrom, André Gaudreault, Tom Gunning, Thomas
Elsaesser, Leonardo Quaresima, all of whom have appeared in recent issues.
The journal’s commitment to new as well as established authors reflects our
belief that film history is a dynamic and rapidly evolving field of
research with great potential for growth across the academic world.



As the official publication of the AFRHC, the journal *1895 Revue
d’histoire du cinéma *is published three times per year, usually comprising
two general issues and one themed issue. Recently there have been themed
issues on the animator Émile Cohl; the Film dʼArt company; the illustrators
Lortac and OʼGalop and French animation of the 1910-1920. Our last themed
issue was devoted to French comic cinema of the 1910s and featured an
exclusive DVD of rare archive films. We also publish special issues, for
example on individual filmmakers such as Abel Gance, René Clair, Germaine
Dulac, Max Ophüls, Jacques Feyder, Jean Grémillon; as well as on broader
topics such as “Music” and “Archives”.



Each general issue of *1895 Revue d’histoire du cinéma *has four regular
sections: “Point of view”; “Studies”; “Archive”; “Review”.



The “Point of view” section features a theoretical essay by a leading
historian (e.g. André Gaudreault, Antoine de Baecque, Laurent Véray)
reflecting on methodological questions in film history today.



In the “Studies” section, there are typically three extensive articles
covering topics from all periods of film history, including the
“pre-history” of cinema. To give an idea of the range of topics, some
recent articles have discussed the “sonorisation” of Lumière films; the
role of cinema in the World Exhibition of 1937; the philosophical writings
of Jean Epstein; the films of Yves Klein; the use of colour in Italian
post-war cinema; the impact of three-D in France in the 1950s; Kracauer’s
sociology of cinema; optical toys; Soviet itinerant cinema; the scenarios
for *La Reine Margot*…



In the “Archive” section, a researcher presents an archive collection or a
set of archival documents that are either unpublished or hitherto
unexamined. These might concern the history of a production company, the
personal archives of a film composer or a film critic, the correspondence
of a director or a producer, the making of a film, the functioning of state
censorship…



Last but not least, one of the most important and popular sections of the
journal is the “Review” section, featuring typically more than 100 pages of
reports on current film history events – such as exhibitions, festivals and
conferences – as well as critical reviews of books, journals and DVDs
published in France, the USA, Italy, Germany, Russia, and elsewhere. This
is an outstanding feature of *1895 Revue d’histoire du cinéma*, which
recognises the vital importance of publishing information and reviews about
ongoing changes in our field of research, in order to maintain a healthy
critical debate about the state of film history as a discipline.



The latest issue of 1895 REVUE DʼHISTOIRE DU CINEMA n°64, Autumn 2011, features
a typically wide range of articles covering a variety of topics from
different periods in film history understood in the broadest sense of the
term: archival war images in documentaries; cinema and the Algerian War of
Independence; educational cinema; direct cinema and cinéma-vérité; rare or
unpublished texts by Lucien Descaves, Jean-Luc Godard, Georges Méliès.



The “Point of View” article, written by Laurent Véray, examines the use of
archival war images from World War One in compilation films and television
documentaries. He argues that increasingly these images are exploited with
spectacular effect but in a totally decontextualised fashion.



In the “Studies” section of the journal, three articles address the
relationship between cinema and cultural institutions or the State. Thus
Pascal Laborderie discusses the policies of the Educational Film Office
during the transition to sound; Sébastien Denis studies several film
projects about the war in Algeria written in 1959-1960 and suppressed by
the French Army and Ministry of Defence; and Séverine Graff analyses the
heated debates around direct cinema versus cinéma-vérité that opposed Jean
Rouch, Edgar Morin, Georges Sadoul and Joris Ivens against Robert Leacock,
Mario Ruspoli, Pierre Schaeffer and Louis Marcorelles in Lyon in 1963.



In the “Archives” section of this issue, Jean-Paul Morel presents texts
related to the “cinema of the people” written in 1914 by Lucien Descaves
and others; while Michael Temple compares three scenarios by Marcel LʼHerbier
for his abandoned adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s “Picture of Dorian Gray”. The
section also features rare texts by Jean-Luc Godard from the Gazette du
cinéma in 1951, and unpublished text by Georges Méliès about his “Joan of
Arc” film from 1897.



Finally, accompanying the forthcoming publication of Philippe Esnault’s
“Antoine cineaste”, Alain Carou pays tribute to the recently deceased film
historian.



The “Review” section of the journal provides as usual a wide range of
critical discussions of exhibitions and conferences, books and journals and
DVDs, relating to films studies in general and film history in particular.



Subscription to 1895 REVUE DʼHISTOIRE DU CINEMA is reasonably priced with
yearly rates at only 30 euros for students, 40 euros for standard members,
and 60 euros for institutions. Single issues are available at 20 euros
each. The annual subscription includes membership of the AFRHC, with voting
rights at the annual General Assembly. You can join the AFRHC and subscribe
to the journal at http://www.afrhc.fr/adhesion/.



Please note that the new AFRHC website can be found at www.afrhc.fr, with
an email contact address [log in to unmask]; while the postal address
remains: AFRHC, 15 rue Lakanal, 75015 Paris.



If you would like to be kept informed about the AFRHC’s activities and
about film history publications and events in France and elsewhere, please
subscribe to our free newsletter “cine-histoire” at
http://www.afrhc.fr/lettre-dinformation/.



Michael Temple, on behalf of the Editorial Board of 1895 REVUE D’HISTOIRE
DU CINEMA and the Executive Committee of the AFRHC.

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Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the
University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu