Archive of A Short History of <em>Cahiers du Cinéma</em>

Jean-Luc Godard, the pioneering director who died on the 13th September at the age of 91, began his career with a pioneering series of films, a magnificent run that included the masterpieces À bout de souffle, Vivre sa Vie, Bande à part, Pierrot le Fou, Masculin Féminin and Week-end. Jared Marcel Pollen charts Godard's early career, and the intersection of literature and cinema in it.

Peter Wollen, the pioneering film theorist and film maker, died on Tuesday 17th December at the age of 81. His books and essays transformed the way that cinema is written about in the English speaking world, particularly his 1969 work Signs and Meaning in the Cinema, which is often regarded as one of the most influential books on cinema ever written.
In celebration of his work, we're republishing his 2001 essay "An Alphabet of Cinema", originally published in New Left Review and included in the essay collection Paris Hollywood.