Serge Daney (1944 - 1992) was an influential French movie critic who went on from writing film reviews to developing a “television criticism” and onto building a personal theory of the image. Although highly regarded in French and European film criticism circles, his work remains little known to English-speaking audiences, largely because it has not been consistently translated. 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ...

Biography

At the Voltaire High School in Paris Daney received his first film teachings from Henri Agel, one of the most respected critic of the time. With two high school friends, Louis Skorecki and Claude Dépêche, he founded a short-lived film magazine called Visages du cinéma which only saw two editions, on Howard Hawks (containing Daney's first published text - a review of Rio Bravo called "An Adult Art") and on Otto Preminger.

In 1964, Daney joined the French film magazine Cahiers du cinéma with a series of interviews of American film directors (notably Howard Hawks, Leo McCarey, Joseph von Sternberg and Jerry Lewis) conducted with Jean Louis Noames (aka Louis Skorecki) during a trip to Hollywood. He writes regularly for the magazine which was moving on from its "yellow cover” beginnings (the time of André Bazin, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Éric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette - roughly 1951-1959) and was about to enter a period of heavy theoretical debates and radical political engagement after 1968. Cahiers du cinéma is an influential French film magazine founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Lo Duca. ... Howard Hawks Howard Hawks (May 30, 1896 – December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer and writer of the classic Hollywood era. ... Leo McCarey (October 3, 1898 - July 5, 1969) was a movie director, screenwriter and producer. ... Jerry Lewis (born on March 16, 1926, according to most sources, as Joseph Levitch, though Shawn Levys biography, King of Comedy, claims this is untrue and that Lewis name at birth was Jerome Levitch), is an American comedian, actor, film producer, writer and director known for his slapstick humor... André Bazin on the cover of the third volume of the original edition of Quest-ce que le cinéma? André Bazin (April 18, 1918 – November 11, 1958) was a renowned and influential French film critic and film theorist. ... François Truffaut. ... Jean-Luc Godard (photograph by David Horvitz) Jean-Luc Godard (born 3 December 1930 in Paris) is a Franco-Swiss filmmaker and one of the most influential members of the Nouvelle Vague, or French New Wave. Born in Paris to Franco-Swiss parents, he was educated in Nyon, later studying... Éric Rohmer (born Jean-Marie Maurice Scherer, April 4, 1920, Nancy, France) is a French film director and screenwriter. ... Jacques Rivette (born March 1, 1928) is a French film director. ...

Between 1968 and 1971, Daney also makes a series of travels to India, Morocco and Africa and starts lecturing cinema at the Censier University (Paris III). After Cahiers’ failure to create a “Revolutionary Cultural Front”, Daney took the responsibility of the magazine in 1973, supported by Serge Toubiana. Together, they operated a "return to cinema" for the magazine and also invited thinkers from outside the field of cinema: Michel Foucault, Jacques Rancière and Gilles Deleuze. Michel Foucault (IPA pronunciation: ; English-speakers pronunciation varies) (October 15, 1926 – June 25, 1984) was a French philosopher and historian. ... Jacques Rancière (born 1940) is a French philosopher. ... Gilles Deleuze (IPA: ), (January 18, 1925 – November 4, 1995) was a French philosopher of the late 20th century. ...

In 1981, Daney left Cahiers for the French daily newspaper Libération, to which he had contributed occasionally since its creation in 1973. Writing first about cinema, his focus turns more and more towards television. In 1987, for a hundred days, he wrote daily about French television in a column called “The wage of the channel hopper”. From 1988 to 1991, he wrote a column on how films look when they are shown on television. He also wrote small pamphlets increasingly critical of television programs before he abandoned writing about television altogether in 1991, after a critical analysis of the television coverage of the Gulf War. Libération (affectionately known as Libé) is a French newspaper founded in Paris in 1973 by Jean-Paul Sartre, Pierre Victor alias Benny Lévy and Serge July in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. ... Combatants UN Coalition Republic of Iraq Commanders Norman Schwarzkopf Saddam Hussein Strength 660,000 360,000 Casualties 378 dead, 1,000 wounded 25,000 dead, 75,000 wounded The Gulf War ( 2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991 ) was a conflict between Iraq and a coalition force of approximately 30 nations...

Daney went on to found the quarterly film magazine Trafic in which he wrote four pieces before dying of AIDS in June 1992. Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS or Aids) is a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). ...

Daney's general theory of the moving image became highly influential for the conception of 1997's documenta X, the tenth installment of the world's most important exhibition for contemporary art besides the Venice Biennale. The curator of documenta X, Catherine David, and her most important intellectual collaborator, Jean-François Chevrier, sought to integrate film and television into a show that was meant to deliver a critical investigation of the contemporary state of the image, and found in Daney's writings one of their guidelines.

Daney had other passions such as tennis and bullfights. A tennis net Tennis is a game played between either two players (singles) or two teams of two players (doubles). Players use a stringed racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponents court. ... Bull ring (Plaza de Toros) La Malagueta in Málaga (Spain) Bullfighting or tauromachy (Spanish toreo, corrida de toros or tauromaquia; Portuguese tourada, corrida de touros or tauromaquia) is a tradition that involves, most of the time, professional performers (generally called in Spanish toreros or matadores and in Portuguese toureiros...

Bibliography

Daney published four books during his lifetime which are collections of his articles: La Rampe (Gallimard/Cahiers du cinéma, 1983), Ciné-journal (Cahiers du cinéma, 1986), Le Salaire du zappeur (P.O.L., 1988), Devant la recrudescence des vols des sacs à main (Aléas, 1991). He also published a little-known book called "Procès à Baby Doc, Duvalier père et fils" a 1973 polemic against the Duvalier regime in Haiti written under the pseudonym Raymond Sapène. Éditions Gallimard is the second most important French publisher, and probably the most respected. ...

In the years after his death, several other books have been released: L'exercice a été profitable, Monsieur (P.O.L, 1993), L'amateur de tennis (P.O.L, 1994), Persévérance (P.O.L, 1994), L’itinéraire d'un ciné-fils (Editions Jean-Michel Place, 1999).

POL Editions have begun the publication of Daney's complete writings in several volumes called La maison cinéma et le monde. So far volumes I and II have been released, covering the period from Daney’s first articles in 1962, to his writings at Cahiers du cinéma and his texts for Libération until 1985. Cahiers du cinéma is an influential French film magazine founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Lo Duca. ... Libération (affectionately known as Libé) is a French newspaper founded in Paris in 1973 by Jean-Paul Sartre, Pierre Victor alias Benny Lévy and Serge July in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. ...

Filmography

Serge Daney participated in several documentaries:

Lettre de Paris à l'ami suisse no 7 (1987), 30min, directed by Maria Koleva

Jacques Rivette, le veilleur (1990), 2h20, directed by Serge Daney and Claire Denis

Damned! Daney (1991), 55 min, directed by Bernard Mantelli

Océanique: Serge Daney - itinéraires d'un ciné-fils (1992), 3 parts of 63min, 60min and 64 min, directed by Pierre-Andre Boutang and Dominique Rabourding

Daney-Sanbar, Conversation Nord-Sud (1993), 46min, directed by Simone Bitton and Catherine Poitevin

Serge Daney, Le Cinephile et le village (1993), 55min, directed by Pascal Kané

Du cinéma à la télévision, propos d'un passeur, Serge Daney (1993), 55min, directed by Philippe Roger

Télé(s)-Flux: le gué Daney (1994), 44min, Directed by Bernard Mantelli

Radio

Serge Daney hosted a weekly broadcast on French radio station France-Culture called Microfilms from the last quarter of 1985 to July 1990. Daney invited a guest speaker (a film maker, a film shoot photographer, an actor) to talk about a film, a particular subject, or to sum up the events of a film season or a festival.

External links

• Adrian Martin's introduction to Daney provides more details on Daney’s approach to criticism
• Serge Daney in English
• Trafic
• Cahiers du cinema