Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Roland Barthes and Positif

“And then there’s the Roland Barthes of the Fifties. The Barthes of Mythologies, who is writing a lot on the cinema, but from a very much ideological, and leftist position. Like when he’s writing on Mankiewicz’s Julius Caesar, Kazan’s On the Waterfront, and Visconti’s La Terra Trema. He really attacks Sacha Guitry. He is actually really opposed to the cinephile discourse of the period. He violently attacks Claude Chabrol’s Le beau Serge – the first official film of the French New Wave – in the name of a leftist position. He accepts a little its naturalism, but not at all its content and themes, of redemption etc. It’s a Barthes that is different from what we’ll see later. He isn’t at all synchronous with his times. Oh! But actually he’s closer to the early Positif, he would also contribute to Positif in a question form. He’s of a position that is more on the left for this period.” – Michel Ciment


Follow the link for a special episode of Projection privée on Roland Barthes, as well there was a 'Semaine spéciale Roland Barthes' on Hors-champs that’s well worth checking out.
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