Trivia

Was François Truffaut's mentor.

Was one of the two witnesses at François Truffaut's first marriage. The other was Roberto Rossellini.

Cinema critic and theorist.

Co-founder of Cahiers du Cinema in 1951.

Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1954

Member of the jury at the Venice Film Festival in 1956

Was a significant influence on the French nouvelle vague.

Bazin was a major force in post-World War II film studies and criticism. He edited Cahiers until his death, and a four-volume collection of his writings was published posthumously, covering the years 1958 to 1962 and titled Qu'est-ce que le cinéma? (What is cinema?).

Bazin was diagnosed with leukemia in 1954.

André Bazin also championed directors like Howard Hawks, William Wyler and John Ford.

He is notable for arguing that realism is the most important function of cinema. His call for objective reality, deep focus, and lack of montage are linked to his belief that the interpretation of a film or scene should be left to the spectator. This placed him in opposition to film theory of the 1920s and 1930s, which emphasized how the cinema could manipulate reality.

Richard Linklater's film Waking Life features a discussion between filmmaker Caveh Zahedi and poet David Jewell regarding some of Bazin's film theories. There is an emphasis on Bazin's Christianity and the belief that every shot is a representation of God manifested in creation.

André Bazin started to write about film in 1943 and was a co-founder of the renowned film magazine Cahiers du cinéma in 1951, with Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca.

François Truffaut dedicated The 400 Blows to Bazin, who died one day after shooting began on the film.

After graduating from the École normale supérieure at Saint-Cloud in 1941, he pursued a career as a teacher, but was denied a teaching post due to his stammer. He then took part in the student organisation Maison des Lettres in Paris, where he founded a ciné-club during the German occupation of Paris.