Radical cinéma

There is a cinema that has developed off the beaten track inventing its own rules. There is a cinema independent from the commercial world as well as from industry, the art world, and outside of the fashion world. There is a cinema in which every great film challenges the very definition of cinema. There is a cinema which constantly renews both the forms and the modalities of its existence. There is a cinema that forms a solid, inescapable core. It is this radical cinema that the author endeavors to explore through the analysis of some major works by the following filmmakers: STAN BRAKHAGE - ROBERT BREER - HENRI CHOMETTE - ANTONIO DE BERNARDI - MARCEL DUCHAMP - GERMAINE DULAC - GUY FIHMAN HOLLIS FRAMPTON - GEORGES FRANJU - CLAUDINE EIZYKMAN - GE´RARD FROMANGER / JEAN-LUC GODARD - RAOUL GRIMOIN-SANSON - ISIDORE ISOU - KEN JACOBS - PETER KUBELKA - FERNAND LE´GER - MAURICE LEMAI^TRE - MAN RAY - JONAS MEKAS - ALAIN MONTESSE - JEAN-CLAUDE ROUSSEAU - PIERRE ROVERE - PAUL SHARITS MICHAEL SNOW - RENE´ VAUTIER - WIM WENDERS... Written over a period of about thirty years to accompany retrospectives, publications and exhibitions, the texts gathered in this volume are grouped into five distinct chapters. The book begins with an interview in which the author explains the conditions of existence, teaching and development of experimental cinema. Filmmaker and photographer, Christian Lebrat founded Paris Expe´rimental Editions and has organized several major experimental cinema events including Jeune, dure et pure ! Une histoire du cine´ma d’avant-garde et expe´rimental en France, presented at the Cine´mathe`que franc¸aise in 2000.