Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma — Season 1
About this season
Produced for television by Claude-Jean Philippe, the « Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma », recounts the history of French cinema from its birth to the beginning of the 1960s. With commentary read by Jean Rochefort.
Episodes (13)
1. Les inventeurs ou la rencontre des photographes et des fantômes
Aired 24 September 1978
Claude-Jean Philippe sees the invention of cinema as the meeting of photographers and ghosts. This film chronologically follows the progress of two inventions: Joseph Plateau's discovery of the persistence of retinal images, the perfection of his phenakitiscope, and Nieppe's invention of photography. The Lumière brothers' cinematograph is the culmination of this double discovery.
2. Lumière et le cinématographe
Aired 1 October 1978
3. Méliès ou le génie de la surprise
Aired 8 October 1978
4. Le cinéma forain
Aired 15 October 1978
5. Episode 5
Aired 22 October 1978
6. Episode 6
Aired 29 October 1978
7. Episode 7
Aired 5 November 1978
8. Episode 8
Aired 12 November 1978
9. Episode 9
Aired 19 November 1978
10. Episode 10
Aired 26 November 1978
11. Episode 11
Aired 3 December 1978
12. Episode 12
Aired 10 December 1978
13. Les Années 20: De l'impressionnisme au cinéma pur
Aired 17 December 1978
Cinema owes a lot to this experimental laboratory that was the French avant-garde between 1919 and 1924. Based on this observation by Henri Langlois, Claude-Jean Philippe shows that these filmmakers (Louis Delluc, Marcel L'Herbier) accused their difference, like the impressionist group. On the other hand, at the end of the 1920s, everyone dreamed of a "pure cinema".