Seminar on Film Criticism

 

Monday 20 and Tuesday 21 August

Film Criticism is a discipline with an extensive scope of interests and topics, its outcomes can be either a brief press release or a highly specialized academic paper. What used to be printed on newspapers and magazines, currently can be found online, increasing the channels and levels of expression. Film criticism can be also considered a somewhat romantic trade, consisting of watching films first and discussing about them afterwards; however, a critique can be decisive and therefore this activity must be exercised with responsibility. Above all, film criticism is a tradition, a manner of establishing dialogues with cinema in order to understand it. Using a maritime metaphor, we could say that film criticism has been circumnavigating the cinema boat for 125 years, and Les Cahiers du Cinéma is one of the largest ships in this journey.

Close to turn 70 years old, this magazine, founded by 3 critics lead by the great André Bazin, established what the route for cinema would be, and highlighted, almost since inception, the important role of directors within the film as a work of art. At the Monterrey Film Festival we are honored to have Les Cahiers du Cinéma, represented in this case by the critic and member of the editorial department Thierry Méranger. Mr. Méranger, alongside with Carlos Bonfil, film critic from La Jornada, will teach a Seminar on Film Criticism. We hope this seminar will motivate analysis and reflections about cinema and about film criticism.

 

Imparted by: Thierry Méranger y Carlos Bonfil.

Thierry Méranger. Born in 1965, Thierry Méranger has been a film critic for Les Cahiers du Cinéma since 2004. He teaches film analysis at the Sorbonne. He is the author of an essay on short subject, Short Film (2007) and for 4 years was the editor-in-chief of the french Lycéens au Cinéma
Educative Program. He is also the artistic director of the Regards d’Ailleurs Film Festival (Dreux).

Carlos Bonfil. Carlos Bonfil is a film critic. For 27 years he has been publishing film reviews at La Jornada newspaper. He is author of the books: Cantinflas: águila o sol (Imcine, 1993); A través del espejo: el cine mexicano y su público (coauthored with Carlos Monsiváis, Imcine, 1994) and Al filo del abismo: Roberto Gavaldón y el melodrama negro (Secretaría de Cultura, 2016).

* Event addressed to those people who have verifiable experience making comments on films in any media.

Sign up here!