What is cinema? / by André Bazin ; foreword by Jean Renoir ; new forward by Dudley Andrew ; essays selected and translated by Hugh Gray.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Foreword -- Contents -- Foreword to the 2004 Edition -- Introduction -- The Ontology of the Photographic Image -- The Myth of Total Cinema -- The Evolution of the Language of Cinema -- The Virtues and Limitations of Montage -- In Defense of Mixed Cinema -- Theater and Cinema Part One -- Theater and Cinema Part Two -- Le Journal d'un curé de campagne and the Stylistics of Robert Bresson -- Charlie Chaplin -- Cinema and Exploration -- Painting and Cinema -- Sources and Translator's Notes -- Index

André Bazin's What Is Cinema? (volumes I and II) have been classics of film studies for as long as they've been available and are considered the gold standard in the field of film criticism. Although Bazin made no films, his name has been one of the most important in French cinema since World War II. He was co-founder of the influential Cahiers du Cinéma, which under his leadership became one of the world's most distinguished publications. Championing the films of Jean Renoir (who contributed a short foreword to Volume I), Orson Welles, and Roberto Rossellini, he became the protégé of François.