Jean George Auriol (1907-1950), a Critic Mediator between Rome and Paris

Abstract

Based on unpublished sources found in French and Italian archives, this article focuses on the figure of Jean George Auriol (1907-1950), French screenwriter and one of the most important and celebrated film criticsand magazine editors of his time. The primary goal of this research is to highlight Auriol’s efforts, beforeand after WWII, to establish links between the film communities in France and Italy. In the late 1930s, Auriol began collaborating with Italian producers and directors, an activity that ended prematurely with the beginning of hostilities. After the war, Auriol made use of his magazine, La Revue du Cinéma, to reinforcehis dialogue with Italian film, and developed a unique and polemical point of view on the much-discussed topic of neorealism. In a later period, in order to prove the existence of a new generation of auteurs, and to underline the significant continuities between neorealism and previous cinema, Auriol helped to promote Italian films through the network of French ciné-clubs. In this context, he most notably celebrated the work of Alessandro Blasetti and Renato Castellani, who proved, according to Auriol, that neorealism in no way implied the erasure of creative authority.