Sadoul, Georges

(1904-1967)

   Film critic and film historian. Born in Nancy in 1904, Georges Sadoul, the son of a wealthy industrialist, became interested in cinema at an early age. He was a member of the surrealist movement and signed the second Surrealist Manifesto in 1930. Sadoul is best known for his work as a film historian and theorist and, in fact, some consider him the father of modern film scholarship. He published a number of works on the cinema, including Histoire du cinéma (1949), Georges Méliès (1961), Louis Lumière (1964), and Histoire du cinéma français (1965), as well as a number of film dictionaries. He also taught film and film history as professor at the Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques (IDHEC). In addition to his works on the cinema, he was also an important literary critic.

   Sadoul's legacy in film history has been mixed. He was an early champion of independent directors and recognized the merits of such directors as Robert Bresson, Luis Bunuel, and Jean-Luc Godard. He was also one of the first scholars in the sound era to study silent film, although many of his assertions have been challenged by more recent scholars. He was completely dismissive of Hollywood cinema, with the exception of Frank Capra, because it clashed with his left-wing political views. In his defense, it may be said that Sadoul's evaluation of silent film was based on a very limited awareness of that period, as most silent films were unavailable at the time he was writing. Moreover, some of his judgments about Hollywood have been repeated and repeated in the years since he wrote. He remains, however, a problematic, if important, icon of French cinema, and although his view shaped the reception of French film decades, many of them were later challenged.

   Historical Dictionary of French Cinema by Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins