Dialectiques réalistes du discours critique: Barkin, Bazin, Desternes.

Abstract

During the forties and fifties, discourses about cinema were dealt with in terms of theory of representation. Italian neorealism catalyzed the critical positions within the debate about realism, yet Italian neorealist films were not the only ones to raise the question of the relationship between film and reality. If the notion of transparency was considered as the key concept within the discourse of realism, it is certainly does not provide an exhaustive explanation of it. By referring to three examples, we show here how the interest of the critical and theoretical debate about realism in post-war France displays various forms to conceive of reality, representation and the role of the spectator. In this article we will examine three models, or ‘ideologies’, of representation.