In:
Journal of British Cinema and Television, Edinburgh University Press, Vol. 10, No. 2 ( 2013-04), p. 340-357
Abstract:
This article offers a critical reassessment of Sequence, the short-lived British film journal (1946–52), which is mainly remembered because its contributors co-founded the Free Cinema movement. Sequence, however, played a crucial, but overlooked, role in the development of film theory. Its core ideas foreshadowed those of Cahiers du Cinéma, the magazine that invariably occurs in the canon as the first journal to emphasise the crucial role of the director and to re-evaluate a group of film-makers regarded as anonymous studio employees. This article, which is based on a close reading of pieces from Sequence's fourteen issues, compares its vision and policy with those of Cahiers (which it preceded), revealing deep-seated similarities between the two, from a dissatisfaction with their respective national film cultures to a preference for analyses focusing on visual style. But whilst the Sequence writers argued that the director played the cardinal role in the production process, they also opposed the Young Turks of Cahiers by never approaching films as the expression of the director's vision alone. Sequence focused on the collective nature of Hollywood production, and thus came closer to the ideas of André Bazin, who actually criticised his young disciples at Cahiers for neglecting the genius of the system. Furthermore, Sequence demonstrated the possibility of a nuanced analysis that did not sacrifice the fascination with the intense, poetic moments that escape traditional theory, thereby echoing Jean Epstein's concept of photogénie, as well as prefiguring more recent forms of cinephilia. This article argues that it is precisely Sequence's pragmatic approach that is the reason for its relative absence in traditional film theory, which is modelled as a dialectical series of radical ideas, such as those of the polemically minded Cahiers.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1743-4521
,
1755-1714
DOI:
10.3366/jbctv.2013.0138
Language:
English
Publisher:
Edinburgh University Press
Publication Date:
2013
SSG:
9,3
SSG:
3,5
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