Generation i

Temporary, unregulated and often unpaid, the internship has

become the route to professional work
DONT talk to the press. Have a good attitude. Always say yes. You
are not here to change the world. And ladies, please, Do not put
us in a position to remind or suggest what qualifies as proper attire.
These are among the instructions given to interns in the office of
John Boehner, the Speaker of the United States House of
Representatives, in an 80-page manual accidentally left at a Capitol
Hill house-party last summer and then posted online. Interns in
Boehnerland, as his offices are known, spend their time answering
the phone, sorting through the post and giving tours of the Capitol
(Do not make something up.). They are instructed to point out a
photograph of Mr Boehner with his high-school friends, illustrating
[his] humility.
Boehnerlands Washington offices are employing 24 unpaid interns
this summer. The 534 other members of the House and Senate have
many moreno one knows exactly how many, because Congress is
exempt from freedom-of-information laws, but perhaps 6,000, with
more in spring and autumn. Down the Mall, the White House has
employed 429 unpaid interns in the past year. The Supreme Court
has its own programme. In all, each summer between 20,000 and
40,000 interns work in Washingtons government departments,
lobbyists, non-profit groups and firms.
The internshipa spell of CV-burnishing work experienceis now
ubiquitous across America and beyond. This year young Americans
will complete perhaps 1m such placements; Google alone recruited
3,000 interns this summer, promising them the chance to do cool
things that matter. Brussels and Luxembourg are the summer
homes of 1,400 stagiaires, or embryonic Eurocrats, doing five-month
1

spells at the European Commission. The Big Four audit companies

Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
will employ more than 30,000 interns this year. Bank of China runs
an eight-week programme (full of contentment, yet indescribable,
according to an intern quoted on its website); Alibaba, a Chinese
online-retailing behemoth, has a global scheme. Infosys, an Indian
tech giant, brings 150 interns from around the world to Bangalore
each year.
From here to internity
The term has different meanings in different places. In Japan, for
instance, an internship tends to be a three- or four-day assessment
of potential recruits. DeNA, a Tokyo-based software company, runs a
four-day internship of this sort, for which participants are paid
100,000 ($950). Sometimes the term is stretched. For Foxconn,
which runs electronics-assembly lines in China, students toiling
away alongside other workers have on occasion been labelled
internsat times they have numbered up to 150,000.
Yet in the West and increasingly in the rest of the world, internship is
becoming the first step to a white-collar career. What does this
mean for employers, and for the next generation of employees?
The first interns were doctors. According to Intern Nation by Ross
Perlin, one of the earliest mentions is in a report to the trustees of a
Boston hospital in 1865. From the 1930s the cities of Los Angeles,
Detroit and New York, and the state of California, ran internships in
public administration. By 1956 a survey found 42 publicadministration internship programmes in America, from Californias
Department of Mental Hygiene to Minnesotas Highway Authority. In
1960, borrowing a term used by French restaurateurs, the European
Commission recruited its first stagiaires.
As the apparatus of governments grew, so did the number of
placements. By 1983 thestagiaire programme had swollen from
2

three students a year to 500. Firms began to adopt the idea, too.
Many had long employed apprentices, who were paid while working
for a professional qualification. But these tended to be for blue-collar
jobs, whereas internships were for the well-heeled or the fast-track.
Jacqueline Kennedy, ne Bouvier, won a year-long internship
at Vogue (though in the end she did not take it up). In 1976 more
than half of American television newsrooms employed interns; by
the 1990s nearly all did. Nowadays, according to Americas National
Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), 63% of American
students do at least one internship before graduating.
One reason is a far larger graduate labour pool. In 1970 one in ten
Americans over 25 had a bachelors degree; now a third do. That
means jobseekers need an edge. If you dont have an internship
you wont get an offer, says Richard, a foreign-exchange trader
who got his job at a London bank following a ten-week placement
last summer. Globalisation has increased competition for plum jobs:
more than half of his fellow interns were from overseas.
Whereas Richards 30-something bosses joined straight from
university, nearly all the banks employees now start in its intern
programme (or that of a rival). According to High Fliers, a marketresearch firm, more than one-third of graduate vacancies in Britain
are now filled from firms own internship programmes. They are
applying earlier and earlier, says Gaenor Bagley, head of human
resources at PwC, which this year will advertise its 10,000
internships at universities freshers weeks.
There is much to like about the intern boom. Employees can
experiment with different careers before choosing one. And for
recruiters internships are a way to sift candidates, a harder process
as work has become more complex. The rise of automation and
outsourcing means graduate jobs now involve fewer routine tasks
and more varied responsibilities, says John Van Reenen of the
London School of Economics. That makes it difficult to judge
candidates by their CVs.
3

Internships have thus become a critical pipeline for hiring, in the

words of Amazon, which counts former interns among its vicepresidents. An analysis by LinkedIn of the CVs of more than 300m
members found that though industries varied in the number of
internships they offered, in many of them more than a quarter of
interns progressed to full-time jobs in the firm where they did their
placement (see chart). More than half of investment-banking
recruits at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley come via their intern
programmes. Selection processes in banks are as gruelling as for
new hiresand pay is as generous. Richard earned 45,000
($75,000) pro rata, the same as a first-year employee.
The rise in internships has been encouraged by universities which,
anxious to justify sharply rising tuition fees, are seeking to get their
students on the path to jobs. Oxford Universitys careers service has
set up an internship office, which tries to find students placements
for their summer holidays and after they graduate. Stanford has a
small campus in Washington, DC, where students can live while they
do internships in the capital, which the university helps them
organise.
Another motive for American colleges and universities is that 90%
offer academic credit for work placements, sometimes during term
time. A growing number make an internship a condition of
graduating for at least some courses. And students usually continue
to pay fees while doing them. For universities its really cheap
money, says Gina Neff, a professor of communication at the
University of Washington. They are getting tuition dollars and not
having to spend instructional dollars. Some internships are
valuable, she says, citing one she oversees in which students work
on local newspapers with support from teachers. But some are not:
she vetoed a Hollywood PR-internship after it turned out to be little
more than an unpaid job promoting films on campus. Some
universities might have pocketed the fees and looked the other way.

All work and no pay

The most enthusiastic employers of unpaid interns are those that
generate a lot of menial work, and are glamorous enough to get
people to do it for nothing. The whole fashion industry would
crumble without interns, says one who spent four unpaid months
working for a tyrannical photographer, who demanded that his
drinks be served no warmer than 4C. Watching million-dollar shoots
and making contacts while ironing, cleaning toilets and lugging
equipment around is worthwhile, he says. But he has witnessed
appalling abuse of the unpaid graduates who (he estimates) make
up one-third of the people he has worked with in fashion. If you
report it, your careers finished.
Unpaid internships are becoming the norm. According to NACE, they
make up nearly half the internships undertaken in America. We
presumed we were going to get paid, says Lee Becker, a professor
of journalism at Georgia University who earned money during stints
on the Kentucky Post and the Wichita Eagle-Beacon in the 1960s. By
1997 only 57% of American journalism students said they could find
a paid internship. By 2010 the figure had fallen to 34%, where it has
remained since. These days, no one is going to pay if they dont
have to, Mr Becker says. In Britain the National Council for the
Training of Journalists found that entrants to the profession had done
seven weeks of internships or work-shadowing on average, 92% of it
unpaid. (One exception is an annual scheme atThe
Economists London offices, which pays 6,000 for three months.)
Perhaps not coincidentally, the number of unpaid internships has
grown just as hiring has become riskier, pricier and more complex.
In recent years anti-discrimination and unfair-dismissal rules have
been tightened, and minimum wages raised, in many rich countries.
The growing cost of benefits such as pensions, health care and
maternity leave makes employees more expensive. Interns have
therefore become an appealing alternative.

Irelands national internship scheme, a government-sponsored

effort to help unemployed people gain work experience in return for
50 ($65) per week on top of their social-security allowance, was
criticised for listing internships stacking supermarket shelves.
Some industries recruit vast numbers of interns compared with the
number of entry-level vacancies. Of a sample of German universityleavers studied by Annette Harms of the University of Lausanne, the
media accounted for 9.5% of their internships, but only 2.1% of the
full-time jobs they eventually landed. The ratios of internships-tojobs were similarly steep in publishing, the arts and politics.
Employers do not need to worry too much about how they give out
internships, either. Government jobs usually have to be advertised
openly. Not so for Capitol Hills internships, which are frequently
used as thank-yous for donors.
The White House internship programmewhose stated mission is
to make the Peoples House accessible to future leaders from
around the nationfound room last summer for the children of a
former treasury secretary, a former chief of staff to the vicepresident and assorted Democratic donors, the Washington
Post noted. An analysis by the New York Times of 1,500 unpaid
interns in the office of Michael Bloomberg, then New Yorks mayor, in
2002-13 established that one in five had been recommended by
someone in the administration. This years City Hall interns include
Chiara and Dante de Blasio, the new mayors children.
Internships can even be bought. Washington has several
organisations which promise to get students an internship for a fee.
The largest is the Washington Centre, which has placed nearly
50,000 interns since 1975. It charges $6,200 for procuring a tenweek summer position (and offers housing for an extra $4,350). It
says it has placed clients at the Treasury, the State Department and
the White House. Dream Careers says it has sold more than 13,000
internships in firms from Standard & Poors to Moschino. Fees for its
eight-week internships, including housing, start at $8,000.
6

In America unpaid internships in profit-making firms were given the

green light by a 1947 Supreme Court judgment on trainee railwaybrakemen. The court ruled in favour of the Portland Terminal
Company, which did not pay them during the seven- or eight-day
training course they had to start with. The federal minimum wage
was obviously not intended to stamp all persons as employees
whomight work for their own advantage on the premises of
another, the court said.
This established an exemption from federal labour law for trainees
which is, firms argue, what interns are. A checklist devised by the
Department of Labour stipulates that in order to be unpaid, an
internship must be similar to training which would be given in an
educational environment, must not displace employees and must
not give the employer any immediate advantage from the interns
labours.
American courts are starting to find that many internships fail these
tests. Last year a judge ruled that Fox Searchlight Pictures had
broken federal and New York minimum-wage laws by not paying two
interns working on Black Swan, an Oscar-winning film, who spent
their time answering the phone, booking travel and taking out the
rubbish. They worked as paid employees work, providing an
immediate advantage to their employerThey received nothing
approximating the education they would receive in an academic
setting or vocational school, the judge wrote.
More than 30 similar lawsuits have been brought in America against
firms including Sony, NBC, the Donna Karan fashion label and the
Pittsburgh Power football team. Some have been settled: last
October the Elite Model Management Corporation agreed to pay
$450,000 to a group of more than 100 former interns who argued
that they had done the work of ordinary employees in its New York
office. A few months earlier the production company of Charlie Rose,
a talk-show host, agreed to pay about $60,000 to interns who had
worked on his show.
7

Laws are also being changed to illuminate the legal twilight in which
interns operate. In 1995 Bridget OConnor, an unpaid intern at a
psychiatric clinic in New York, brought a case for sexual harassment
against the clinic and one of its doctors. Her case was thrown out,
and her appeal turned down, on the ground that as she was not an
employee, she was not protected by the relevant employment laws.
After a series of similar cases, the states of New York and Oregon, as
well as Washington, DC, have passed laws specifically protecting
unpaid interns from sexual harassment. California looks likely to
follow.
Some European countries are changing their laws to accommodate
internships. In Italy a labour-market reform passed in 2012
mandated pay for interns of at least 300 per month, rising to 600
in some regions. Spain has introduced training and apprenticeship
contracts of up to three years, under which workers are paid a
lower wage while they learn the ropes.
Some firms are now rethinking their unpaid schemes. Last month
Bell Mobility, a big Canadian mobile-phone firm, scrapped its unpaid
internship programme, a year after a former intern had sued it
(unsuccessfully) for back-pay. Some media companies, including
the New York Times and theAtlantic, have started paying their
previously unpaid interns. Others are simply wording advertisements
more carefully, rather than changing working conditions. Earlier this
year Britains Conservative Party produced a memo to MPs on how
to reduce the risk of potential hostile questioning about unpaid
interns. Job ads should avoid phrases such as You will be expected
to and instead say, The kind of activities it would be great to get
some help with include, it advised.
Change is slow. In the meantime internships, instead of being a foot
in the door for youngsters of all backgrounds, can be a barrier to
those who lack the connections to get them or the finances to forgo
pay. According to a 2009 government report in Britain on widening
access to professional jobs, many placement schemes are run in a
8

way that means employers are missing out on talented people

and talented people are missing opportunities to progress, with
negative consequences for social mobility. If internships are unpaid,
its likely that youre going to limit the opportunity to young people
from well-off families, says Bernie Sanders, a left-wing senator from
Vermont who is one of the very few American congressmen to pay
interns. The $10.10 per hour they receive is not a lot, but enough
that we open it up and give more people the chance to participate in
the experience, he says.
When the first rung is broken
Those consequences of the shift away from paying interns are hard
to measure, but there is some evidence that access to jobs has been
restricted. Lindsey Macmillan of the Institute of Education at London
University has used a data set covering a dozen professions, from
engineering to law, to compare those born in 1958 with those born
in 1970. The older cohort grew up in families with incomes 17%
higher than average; the younger in ones that were 27% better off.
The intake of some professions has been transformed: journalists
used to come from families 6% better off than average, whereas
now they come from homes that are 42% richer (meaning they are
from wealthier homes than bankers of the same age).
Some of this could reflect the fact that those professions have
become more desirable, and therefore attract brighter, richer
candidates. But Ms Macmillan and her colleagues compared IQs and
found that the younger cohort of professionals was, on average,
slightly dimmer than the previous, poorer generation.
It would be a stretch to pin all this on internships. But there does
appear to be a barrier to social mobility facing those leaving
university. Looking at a cohort born in 1986todays 28-year-olds
Ms Macmillan found that the privately educated were more likely to
enter prestigious professions, even when taking degree-class,
subject and university into account. She wonders if they are calling
9

on family finances to delay their job search: six months after

graduating, the privately schooled are less likely to have a
permanent job.
That seems to tally with the picture on Capitol Hill, where mainly
well-off young graduates spend their days furtively job-hunting while
working unpaid in Boehnerland, or somewhere like it. Employers of
unpaid interns argue that, with hard work, bright people will find a
way to make it. The Pursuit of Happyness, a film starring Will
Smith, tells the true story of a homeless man who worked through
an unpaid internship as a stockbroker, finally getting hired.
Congressmen like to tell their own stories of overcoming poverty and
adversity: Paul Ryan, for instance, worked in a gym and poured
margaritas at a Mexican restaurant in order to fund his own start as
an intern, before going on to become a congressman and run for
vice-president. It is a heartwarming storyparticularly, one
imagines, for Mr Ryans own interns, whom he does not pay a cent.

10

If other professions were paid like artists

Everything is Free Now

This week a visual artist friend posted the following on her Facebook
page:
Just for the fun of it, I counted up how many times in 2014 Ive
been asked to do work for free, but for the distinct financial benefit
of those asking. A donation, if you will. Eight times so far, six weeks
into the year. I knew I was asked a lot, but I didnt realize the
average was more than once a week. If only paying jobs came with
the same frequency.
Her post reminded me of this drawing by artist Melanie
Gillman (thanks Irene Ogrizek!). Gillmans drawing satirizes how our
culture treats working artists. There are few professions where
individuals are expected to give away their time, talents, and ideas.
And yet artists are expected to do it on a regular basis.
Why? Because the larger culture has discovered our secret:
that most of us will make art even if it doesnt make
money. Most artists create for the joy of the process, because they
have something to say, and because they mustits as essential as
breathing and eating.
Singer-songwriter Gillian Welch writes about this creative dilemma
beautifully in her song Everything is Free. Heres the songs
chorus:
Everything is free now, thats what they say
Everything I ever done, gonna give it away
Someone hit the big score, they figured it out
They were gonna do it anyway, even if it doesnt pay

The Benefits of Abundance

11

While its true that even lawyers and doctors do pro-bono work for
causes they believe in, there is a primary difference: they arent
expected to give their services away on a daily basis. Its their
ability to earn a stable living that allows them the luxury of
being generous and donating their time and services.
Financial stability gives them choice.
In other words, abundance (however you define this word)
allows generosity. It allows us to give back without harming
ourselves.
Abundance will be defined differently for each personwe all have
varying ideas about what it means to live well. But most of us can
make do with less than we think we can. And yet simplicity is not
the same thing as poverty or insecurity. Artists need to have
security in order to thrive. We need our mental and physical
energy free for our creative work and the business of
promoting it. Worry drains our energy.
Artists excel at bartering, especially with each other. (This is another
reason we are so often asked to give away our workbartering is a
familiar currency in our world.) Personally, Ive benefited
tremendously from the gift economy, and it can be a huge help
when exchanges are mutually beneficial.
But problems arise when the balance of power is unequal
when we are asked to give more than we receive in return. This can
create resentment, especially when time, money, and energy are
scarce instead of abundant. The result is that we feel depleted,
stressed, and ashamed because we have not taken care of our own
well-being first.
Mindfulness & Money
What is the solution? Mindful decision-making.
My friend, who counted up the number of times she had been asked
to give away her work, took a crucial stepshe quantified these
requests. Now that she is aware of how many donation requests are
coming in, you can bet she is going to think twice each time she is
asked. She now realizes that saying yes to something means
saying no to something else.
12

Taking care of our own financial needs is not selfish, its essential.
And like the doctors and lawyers who donate time to causes they
care about, abundance, as well as balance, will allow us to be
generous when we are approached for a donation.
We all carry around a lifetime of subtle (and not-so-subtle) cultural
and family messages about money. These money myths become so
ingrained that we forget to question them. We assume theyre true,
when in most cases, they arent. Too often we simply coast on autopilot, not examining our decisions and often saying yes when it
should be no and vice versa.
Do Any of These Distortions about Money Sound Familiar?
o

Distortion 1: People cant afford the art, services, music,

etc. that I create.

Distortion 2: If I follow my passion and do what I love, I

wont make money.

Distortion 3: Im selling out if I set my prices

appropriately and charge what I need to charge to make a living.

Distortion 4: Price is what matters most and cheap sells.

Distortion 5: Money corrupts. Im a better artist without it.

Distortion 6: I am doomed to be a starving, struggling

artist forever.

Distortion 7: Being a successful artist in a capitalist

market is impossible.
Distortion 8: Its not fair that artists have it so hard in this

o
society.
o

Distortion 9: Its not fair that other artists are more

successful than I am

Distortion 10: My ideal customer is someone like myself

or my friends, and since were struggling artists, I should keep my
work affordable.

13

Distortion 11: Its not cool/ladylike/hip/proper to talk

about money.

Distortion 12: My gut tells me to say no to giving away

my time, but I have to say yes to stay on this person or
organizations good side.

Distortion 13: If I keep giving away my art and services,

someone will eventually notice and appreciate my work.

Distortion 14: (And the most insidious of all) Im not worth

it. I dont deserve to make a good living doing work I love. (This is
shame talking.)

Its time for artists to discuss the topic of money openly and
without shame. We cant expect abundance to simply fall into our
lapswe need to seek it out. We need to know what our goals are
financially. We need to quantify them, write them down, and
mindfully draft an action plan that will help us achieve these specific
goals.
Yes, its true that our culture isnt easy on artists. And yes, being an
artist is hard work, even when the money does come in. But too
many artists have accepted their role as victims. Perhaps its time
to move past the things we cant control, and instead, focus
on what we can control. We cant control the competition pool for
grants and residencies and shows, to give one example, but we can
control how we present and price our work and how often we apply.
Perhaps a day job is necessary right now, but is it also necessary to
stick with grueling work that is an ill fit with our creative lives?

Here Are Some Questions to Consider:

Which of the above money distortions derail me most in my

financial life? What are the origins of these beliefs? My family? My
peers? The larger culture? Are they really true?
14

How much money do I need to make each month to be

comfortable?

How much money would I like to earn each month (my pie-inthe-sky goal)?

How much am I short of my goal at present? (If you are short.)

How can I best close my income gap? Can I do it by selling my

work? By applying for grants? (Concentrate on ways of making
money from creative work or on jobs thatcompliment your artistic
practice. Get specific about numbers.)

Which daily luxuries are worth paying more for and which ones
can I let go of to save money? (Cable TV, for instance, or a new car
versus a used one, etc.)

Notice from the previous question that certain items areworth

paying more fora good cup of coffee from the local coffeehouse,
for example, versus the burned swill from the gas station, or fresh
local produce from the farmers market versus imported produce
from the grocery store. Why should art be any different? Why
wouldnt your ideal customer pay for a painting, drawing, book,
concert, or piece of furniture they truly love? Why wouldnt they pay
for uniqueness, beauty, meaning, good design, or an interesting
point of view? (Remember, you are not your ideal customer, and you
are not merely selling art, but an experience.)

If I am not my ideal customer, then who is? Who would I like to

see buying my work?

How can I connect with these customers virtually or in person?

How can I price my work so that it fits into this market?

(Remember, setting a price too low can actually hurt you.)
o How can my marketing materials also situate my work in
this market? (This means your website, business cards,
artist statement, social media presence, etc. If you aspire
to sell your work in a more exclusive market, then your
prices and everything related to your work should send a
unified message: I belong here.)
15

o How much time do I spend on each piece I create? (You

need to know what your labor is worth.) How much
money do I spend on materials? (Dont forget to factor
these numbers into your pricing.)
o When I am asked to provide free work or services, how
does my body respond to the request? (Listen to your gut.
There are cases when donations are appropriate, and
others situations that are actually harmful. If it is difficult
to say no when approached face to face, have a
response ready, such as, Can I think about it? I have a lot
going on right now and want to check my schedule.
Practice saying no!)
o If I suffered less anxiety over money, how would this
liberate me? In what ways could I be more generous?
(Consider how this explodes the myth that money is
harmful.)
As artists, its time to shift our mindset from one of scarcity
to one of abundance. Pricing our work appropriately, saying no
when necessary, and setting concrete financial goals for our creative
practice are signs of self-respect. The larger culture exploits artists,
in part, because we allow it. We may not be able to change the
world, but we can certainly change our response to it.

16

Qu'est-ce que le cinema?

La mort d'Andr Bazin en 1959 ne lui permit pas de terminer la mise

au point de la publication du quatrime tome de sa srie d'articles
intitule "Qu'est-ce que le cinma ?" consacr au noralisme
italien. Ce fut son ami, Jacques Rivette, qui s'en chargea en 1962.
En 1976, les principaux articles ont t runis en un seul volume sur
les conseils de Jeannine Bazin et de Franois Truffaut.
Ces 27 articles sont consacrs :
des films (11) : Le mystre Picasso, Le journal d'un cur de
campagne, Les dernires vacances, Le monde du silence, La
terre tremble, Le voleur de bicyclette, Umberto D, Cabiria,
Allemagne anne zro, Europe 51, sept hommes abattre.
des ralisateurs (4) (outre pour les films prcdents HenriGeorges Cluzot, Robert Bresson, Roger Leenhardt, Louis Malle,
Luchino Visconti, Vittorio de Sica, Federico Fellini, Roberto
Rossellini et Budd Boetticher) Jacques Tati, Marcel Pagnol,
Vittorio de Sica et Roberto Rossellini.
des genres (4) : deux articles sur le western, le documentaire
et le cinma rotique.
une cole esthtique : le noralisme
l'art du cinma (4) : ontologie de l'image cinmatographique,
le mythe du cinma total, montage interdit, l'volution du
langage cinmatographique.
aux rapports du cinma aux autres arts (3) : Pour un cinma
impur. Dfense de l'adaptation ; Thatre et cinma ; Peinture
et cinma (o il aborde la dfinition du hors champ)

17

Le western ou le cinma amricain par excellence prface au livre

du mme titre de JL Rieupeyrout, 1953 et Evolution du western,
cahiers du cinma 1955
Des chevauches, des bagarres, des hommes forts et courageux
dans un paysage d'une sauvage austrit, la pure jeune fille, vierge,
sage et forte qui finit par pouser le hros, la sinistre canaille, une
menace incarne par la guerre de scession, les Indiens ou les
voleurs de btail, l'entraneuse du saloon au grand cur qui se
sacrifie sa vie et un amour sans issue au bonheur due hros et qui
se rachte dfinitivement dans le cur du spectateur. Toutes les
femmes sont ainsi dignes d'amour. Seuls les hommes peuvent tre
mauvais
Paysages immenses de prairies de dsert de rochers o s'accroche
la
ville
en
bois
amibe
primitive
d'une
civilisation
L'Indien est incapable d'imposer l'ordre de l'homme. L'homme blanc
est le conqurant crateur d'un nouveau monde. L'herbe pousse o
son cheval a pass, il vient tout la fois implanter son ordre moral
et son ordre technique, indiscutablement lis, le premier
garantissant le second. La scurit matrielle des diligences la
protection des troupes fdrales et la construction des grandes
voies ferres importent moins que l'instauration de la justice et de
son
respect
Seuls des hommes forts. rudes et courageux pouvaient conqurir les
paysages de l'Ouest La police et les juges profitent surtout aux
faibles
La justice pour tre efficace doit tre extrme et expditive moins
que le lynch cependant on passe de l'pope la tragdie

Pour un cinma impur ; dfense de l'adaptation

L'art est une affaire de vision, un cinaste qui se contente de traiter
un roman comme un synopsis pouss restera mdiocre quel que soit
l'uvre choisie. C'est en tant sensible aux visions qu'offre la
littrature que le cinma pourra progresser. C'est la connaissance
intime de l'uvre littraire que Bazin souhaite mettre en avant en
posant ce salutaire paradoxe : la littrature est bien plus moderne
que le cinma.
18

Les adaptations de Victor Hugo et d'Alexandre Dumas ne fournissent

gure au cinaste que des personnages et des aventures dont
l'expression littraire est dans une large mesure indpendante.
Javert ou d'Artagnan font dsormais partie d'une mythologie extra
romanesque, ils jouissent en quelque sorte d'une existence
autonome dont l'uvre originale n'est qu'une manifestation
accidentelle et presque superflue.
On adapte des romans comme des synopsis trs pousss en n'en
retenant que des personnages, une intrigue voire une atmosphre.
L'crivain n'est plus qu'un scnariste trs prolixe.
Quand Robert Bresson dclare avant de porter l'cran, Le journal
d'un cur de campagne que son intention est de suivre le roman
page par page sinon phrase par phrase, on voit bien qu'il s'agit de
toute autre chose et que des valeurs nouvelles sont en jeu. Il se
propose de transcrire pour l'cran dans une quasi-identit, une
uvre dont il reconnat a priori la transcendance.
Le thtre film est devenu le lieu commun de l'opprobre critique.
Au moins, le roman requiert une certaine marge de cration pour
passer de l'criture l'image. Le thtre est un faux ami.
L'adaptation a toujours exist au sein mme de chaque art, un
peintre adapte la technique de son prdcesseur comme Madame
de la Fayette doit beaucoup la tragdie racinienne
On connat le mot clbre attribu Zecca dcouvrant un certain
Shakespeare : "Ce qu'il est pass ct de jolies choses, cet animal
l !". Zecca et ses confrres ne risquaient pas d'tre influencs par
une littrature qu'ils ne connaissaient pas plus que le public auquel
ils s'adressaient.
Les tentatives d'adoption du cinma par les beaux messieurs de
l'Acadmie et de la Comdie franaise se traduit par l'chec du film
d'art. si nous trouvons encore du charme aux malheurs d'dipe ou
du prince du Danemark par le cinma dbutant, c'est comme ces
interprtations paganises et naves de la liturgie catholique par une
tribu sauvage qui a mang ses missionnaires.

19

Bazin rfute l'ide que l'art de Dos Passos, Cadwell, Hemingway ou

Malraux procde de la technique cinmatographique. Certes les
nouveaux modes de perception imposs par l'cran, des faons de
voir comme le gros plan, ou des structures de rcit comme le
montage ont aid le romancier renouveler ses accessoires
techniques. Mais dans la mesure mme o les rfrences
cinmatographiques sont avoues, comme chez Dos Passos, elles
sont du mme coup rcusables : elles s'ajoutent simplement
l'attirail de procds dont l'crivain construit son univers particulier.
Mme si l'on admet que le cinma a inflchi le roman sous
l'influence de sa gravitation esthtique, l'action de l'art nouveau n'a
sans doute pas dpass celle qu'a pu exercer le thtre sur la
littrature au sicle dernier par exemple ; c'est une loi probablement
constante que celle de l'influence de l'art voisin dominant.
Les images de l'cran sont dans leur immense majorit conformes
la psychologie du thtre ou du roman d'analyse classique. Elles
supposent, avec le sens commun, une relation de causalit
ncessaire et sans ambigut entre les sentiments et leurs
manifestations ; elles postulent que tout est dans la conscience et
que la conscience peut tre connue.
Si l'on entend un peu plus subtilement par cinma autre chose
qu'image mais technique du rcit apparent au montage et au
changement de plan, les mmes remarques restent valables. L'ge
du roman amricain n'est pas tant celui du cinma que d'une
certaine vision du monde, vision informe sans doute par les
rapports de l'homme avec la civilisation technique, mais dont le
cinma lui-mme fruit de cette civilisation, a bien moins subit
l'influence que le roman.
La preuve que c'est le cinma qui est en retard de cinquante ans sur
la littrature c'est qu'il s'inspire bien plus des uvres anciennes que
des romans o certains voudraient voir son influence pralable.
Quand un cinaste amricain s'attaque par exception une uvre
d'Hemingway comme Pour qui sonne le glas (Sam Wood, 1947),
c'est en fait pour la traiter dans un style traditionnel qui conviendrait
aussi bien n'importe quel roman d'aventures.

20

Le romancier adopte une mise en valeur des faits dont les affinits
avec les moyens d'expressions du cinma sont certains (soit qu'il les
ait emprunts directement soit, comme nous le pensons plutt, qu'il
s'agisse d'une sorte de convergence esthtique qui polarise
simultanment plusieurs formes d'expressions contemporaines).
Mais dans ce processus d'influence ou de correspondances, c'est le
roman qui est all le plus loin dans la logique du style. C'est lui qui a
tir le parti le plus subtil de la technique du montage, par exemple,
et du bouleversement de la chronologie ; lui surtout qui a su lever
jusqu' une authentique signification mtaphysique l'effet d'un
objectivisme inhumain et comme minral. Quelle camra a jamais
t aussi extrieure son objet que la conscience du hros
de L'tranger d'Albert Camus ?
En vrit, nous ne savons si Manhattan Transfert ou La condition
humaineauraient t trs diffrent sans le cinma, mais nous
sommes sur en revanche que Thomas Garner et Citizen
Kane n'auraient jamais t conus sans James Joyce et Dos Passos.
Nous assistons la pointe de l'avant garde cinmatographique, la
multiplication des films qui ont l'audace de s'inspirer d'un style
romanesque que l'on pourrait qualifier d'ultra-cinmatographique.
Dans cette perspective l'aveu de l'emprunt n'a qu'une importance
secondaire.

Thtre et cinma
Le corps de l'acteur de thtre prsent sur la scne favorise bien un
processus mental spcifique. Celui-ci ne saurait toutefois se rduire
l'infirmit suppose du cinma qui ne saurait pas accueillir
"l'irremplaable prsence de l'acteur". Bazin rfute cette triste tarte
la crme des sectaires. Il rappelle que l'cran restitue la prsence
la manire d'un miroir au reflet diffr dont le tain retient l'image.
Ce que nous perdons du tmoignage direct nous le regagnons grce
la proximit artificielle que permet le grossissement de la camra.

21

Bazin fait sien le texte d'un certain Rosenkrantz publi dans la

mme revue mme s'il souligne que celui-ci ne parle que du cinma
classique dont Welles notamment saura sortir :
"Les personnages de l'cran sont tout naturellement des objets
d'identification alors, que ceux de la scne sont bien plutt des
objets d'opposition mentale, parce que leur prsence effective leur
donne une ralit objective et que pour les transposer en objets
d'un monde imaginaire la volont active du spectateur doit
intervenir, la volont de faire abstraction leur ralit physique. Cette
abstraction est le fruit d'un processus de l'intelligence qu'on ne peut
demander qu' des individus pleinement conscients.
Le spectateur de cinma tend s'identifier au hros par un
processus psychologique qui a pour consquence de constituer la
salle en "foule " et d'uniformiser les motions () Le cinma apaise
le spectateur, le thtre l'excite. Le thtre mme lorsqu'il fait appel
aux instincts les plus bas, empche jusqu' un certain point une
mentalit de foule () car il exige une conscience individuelle
active, alors que le film ne demande qu'une adhsion passive.
C'est dans la mesure o le cinma favorise le processus
d'identification au hros qu'il s'oppose au thtre. Le cinma
dispose de procds de mise en scne qui favorisent la passivit ou
au contraire excite plus ou moins la conscience. Inversement le
thtre peut chercher attnuer l'opposition psychologique entre le
spectateur et son hros.
Pour Bazin, la russite du thtre film qu'il appelle de ses vux ne
rside pas dans la transposition du thtre au cinma de ces deux
piliers essentiels que sont l'acteur et le texte. Le problme est dans
la reconversion de l'espace scnique dans les donnes de la mise en
scne cinmatographique pour exprimer la thtralit du drame
La scne de thtre est le lieu de la thtralisation du drame port
par la parole de l'acteur. La salle de thtre, son dcor, lui servent
de caisse de rsonance. Au cinma, l'homme n'est pas ncessaire,
c'est l'espace qui prdomine. Transposs tels quels dans l'ther
infini du cinma, texte et acteur perdent de leur puissance. Rien
n'est pire que le thtre illustr de dcors naturels qui dlitent
l'nergie de la parole
22

C'est parce que l'infini dont le thtre a besoin ne saurait tre

spatial qu'il ne peut qu'tre celui de l'me humaine. Ce que les
tragdies ont de spcifiquement thtral ce n'est pas tant leur
action que la priorit humaine, donc verbale, donne l'nergie
dramatique.()
Le problme du thtre film, du moins pour les uvres classiques,
ne consiste pas tant transposer une action de la scne l'cran,
qu' transporter un texte d'un systme dramaturgique dans un
autre, en lui conservant pourtant son efficacit. ()
L'histoire des checs et des rcentes russites du thtre film sera
donc celle de l'habilet des metteurs en scne quant aux moyens de
retenir l'nergie dramatique dans un milieu qui la rflchisse ou, du
moins, lui donne assez de rsonance pour qu'elle soit encore perue
par le spectateur de cinma. C'est dire d'une esthtique, non point
tant de l'acteur, que du dcor et du dcoupage la gageure que
doit tenir le metteur en scne est celle de la reconversion d'un
espace orient vers la seule dimension intrieure, du lieu clos et
conventionnel du jeu thtral.
On comprend ds lors que le thtre film soit radicalement vou
l'chec quand il se ramne, de prs ou de loin, une photographie
de la reprsentation scnique, mme et surtout quand la camra
cherche nous faire oublier la rampe et les coulisses. L'nergie
dramatique du texte, au lieu de revenir l'acteur, va se perdre sans
cho dans l'ther cinmatographique.

23

 A travers Andr Bazin

par Elisabeth Boyer

Le cinma est un art impur. Il est bien le plus-un des arts,

parasitaire et inconsistant. Mais sa force dart contemporain est
justement de faire ide, le temps dune passe, de limpuret de
toute ide. [] Il est le septime art en un sens tout particulier. Il ne
sajoute pas aux sept autres sur le mme plan queux, il les
implique, il est le plus-un des six autres. Il opre sur eux, partir
deux, par un mouvement qui les soustrait eux-mmes. [1]
Affirmer ainsi aujourdhui limpuret de lart du cinma a un
caractre absolument novateur.
Il faut bien voir cependant que limpuret du cinma est un vieux
dbat, aussi vieux que lart du cinma, discussion dans laquelle le
concept de puret intervient chaque fois quil y a en ralit suture
du cinma un seul art. (Ds 1910, il existe des thoriciens dun
cinma pur : un cinma plastique, extra-thtral et extralittraire). mais ce qui fait massivement question, cest limpuret
comme telle : quels rapports le cinma entretient-il avec les autres
arts ? comment ? Ds 1922, Elie Faure se prononce ainsi : Le
cinma ne doit pas tre considr comme une succursale du
thtre. Sil est dabord plastique il tendra toujours plus se
rapprocher de la musique. [2] Le dbat prendra un nouvel essor
larrive du cinma sonore, mais sans pourtant en modifier les
termes essentiels. Pour Elie Faure, sil existe un danger propre
lavnement du son, il souligne que ce pril tait dj l, quun
dialogue explicatif est aussi nocif que, souvent, la lgende des
intertitres. En 1934, il crit une nouvelle dclaration dimpuret,
plus prcise, plus radicale : le cinmasest trop rapproch du
thtre, sloignant dautant de la sculpture, de la peinture, de la
musique et de la danse quil doit se garder de perdre de vue, car
elles lui interdisent, sous peine de mort, de jamais oublier la forme,
le passage, le rythme et le mouvement. [3] Le cinma est
irrductiblement impur, cela engage son existence : limpuret ou la
mort.
Voil qui pourrait affadir quelque peu le titre clbre de larticle de
24

Bazin : Pour un cinma impur, si ce titre insolent ne secouait une

religieuse obscnit en prononant un vu dimpuret. Limpuret
na pas bonne rputation : prenez un dictionnaire analogique, vous y
trouverez le mal, la salissure, la dbauche.
A ceux qui qualifient limpuret de trahison il va demander un
principe de confiance ; que lon tienne compte de lexistence de
ces films qui recourent de plus en plus directement aux autres
arts : cest l un fait que nous ne pouvons gure quenregistrer et
essayer de comprendre. A trahison, il va opposer lide (capitale
dans ses crits) de fidlit -notion qui sera dveloppe plus loin.
Limpuret, cest le rel des crits de Bazin sur le cinma : quelque
chose quil relvera ponctuellement dans les films comme ce qui
provoque une gne exquise. Lme militante, Bazin veut clarifier
lide dimpuret du cinma parce quelle tisse lexistence duvres
qui lont profondment mu : il dfend des films, bien souvent,
contre-courant de lopinion critique (Citizen Kane, Voyage en Italie).
Cette rigueur mme interdit de rduire le montage de ses articles
une esthtique, quand bien mme on en dcle des lments. Cette
tentation est comme entrave, droute par ses interventions sur
les films. Lart est avant tout pour lui un espace de libert : laisser
lart sa libert naturelle, [] ne pas vouloir imposer des cadres
esthtiques priori aux crateurs. [4]
Quest-ce que le cinma ?, le titre du livre est une question :
laffirmation dune interrogation incessante qui ne peut se poser
rellement que du point des uvres. Les articles contiennent un bon
nombre de dclarations paradoxales ds lors quils traitent de
gnralits esthtiques. Les textes les plus beaux, les plus
importants sont ceux qui touchent singulirement un film, qui
dveloppent en termes libres et vivants en quoi tel film sexpose
comme surprise de pense, comme invention.
Limpuret nest pas affirme par Bazin comme une condition du
cinma. Ecrit au dbut des annes 50, ce texte, Pour un cinma
impur, sinscrit dans une conjoncture prcise o limpuret dsigne
25

un emploi particulier, direct, du roman ou du thtre dans des

films. Cet emploi est peru par toute une opinion critique comme
une dcadence, une dgnrescence du cinma qui avait ses yeux
si chrement gagn la possibilit de la transparence, faire oublier
son impuret. Bazin sadresse ceux qui prnent la puret du 7
art : un cinma sans les bquilles des autres arts.
Larticle contient deux contradictions majeures : dune part, son
sous-titre qui annonce une dfense de ladaptation, savre tre,
en grande partie, une critique svre de ladaptation romanesque et
thtrale ; dautre part, dans un texte qui milite pour un cinma
impur se dresse, en majest, un corpus de films (propos par les
dfenseurs du cinma pur) dont Bazin admet leur moindre
impuret : Le Cuirass Potemkine (1925), LAurore (1927),
Hallelujah (1929), Scarface (1932), New-York Miami (1934), ou
mme La Chevauche Fantastique (1939) et Citizen Kane
(1941). [5] Il assigne alors lexistence de ces films une poque
florissante passe, si bien que limpuret nest pas un attribut du
cinma, mais est circonscrite un donn historique, sa naissance
dabord : le cinma comme relai des autres arts -des genres
puiss, abandonns (farce, Commedia dellArte), les avatars de
ces formes darts dites infrieures qui ne scandalisaient
personne [6], et puis une impuret qui se limiterait une catgorie
de films non encore autonomes, films qui font des emprunts
directs des arts riverains, ou, plus exactement, qui prennent ces
arts comme objet. Si Bazin reconnat comme chefs-duvre les
films de la liste de ce vrai cinma, il convient quil sagit l dun
cinma plus autonome, Il est certain que, qualit gale
dailleurs, un scnario original est prfrable une adaptation. [7]
(Il dit pourtant, par ailleurs, propos de Citizen Kane -nomm dans
la fameuse liste-, tout ce que le film emprunte au roman.)
Cette reconnaissance de la supriorit du scnario original va
jeter un doute sur limpuret du cinma : peut-il cesser den tre
ainsi ?
Bazin, cependant, ne soulve lexpression cinma pur quavec
prcaution, elle est pratiquement toujours utilise par lui comme
effet, rsultat dune opration impure. (Il crit sur Les Dames du
26

Bois de Boulogne, propos de la rencontre dun texte avec des

lments disparates : elle est limpuret ltat pur.)
Pourquoi cette question du scnario (non argumente l -et encore
fort obscure aujourdhui) est-elle mise en balance avec celle de
limpuret ? Cest quil subsiste une attirance pour la puret, du fait
mme que le rapport du cinma aux autres arts est malgr tout
encore vu sous langle de la suture, mme si la suture peut
seffectuer, glisser, dun art un autre, (roman, thtre, peinture)
-adaptation, quivalence, traduction sont des noms de cette
suture, contre lesquels, trangement, il met en garde : Car la
fidlit de Bresson au texte de Bernanos, non seulement son refus
de ladapter mais son souci paradoxal den souligner le caractre
littraire, est au fond le mme parti pris que celui qui rgit les tres
et le dcor. [8]
Ultimement, Bazin propose un songe : peut-tre parce que les
romans seront directement crits en films ? (lide sera reprise et
dveloppe ensuite par Truffaut). La musique, lart vers lequel doit
tendre le cinma selon Elie Faure, est presque totalement absente
chez Bazin, et ceci nest pas d au hasard : si le concept de puret
reste ltat latent, fait retour alors quon le croit rfut, cest quil
est chevill une conception du sens, et lon sait quil est trs
difficile darrimer du sens la musique. Pour Bazin le cinma est un
langage qui permet de rvler le sens cach de la ralit, do
lutilisation massive de la notion de ralisme qui recouvre chez lui
les aspects les plus divers du cinma.
Il semble justement quavec son ide de fidlit Bazin ouvre une
brche, dessine une faille dans la notion de ralit, d objet, -l
mme o il va tre possible dintroduire le concept de rel. (Le mot
est employ parfois par Bazin, mais se confond avec lusage du mot
ralit.)
Si lon tient que lart est une pense (et non pas un langage), alors
chaque art a son mode de pense singulier, son rel propre.
La ralit relve de lobjet, de la connaissance, du dicible.
Le rel ne relve pas de lobjet. Il est une dimension indicible de la
pense. Il touche aux vrits.

27

La fidlit, telle que Bazin essaie de la dfinir est impossible

imaginer comme fidlit un objet. Peut-on seulement tre fidle
un objet ? On peut imiter fidlement un objet, mais limitation ainsi
pose ne rpond que de la ressemblance vise par les faussaires,
pas de lart. Ce que Bazin cherche en tudiant les films, cest
comment peut bien soprer la fidlit du cinma un autre art ? Il
nonce dabord que cela requiert du cinaste un gros travail
denqute sur luvre riveraine. On pense lobjection de
Platon : Mais limitateur, tiendra-t-il de lusage de la science des
choses quil reprsente, saura-t-il si elles sont belles et correctes ou
non -ou sen fera-t-il une opinion droite parce quil sera oblig de se
mettre en rapport avec celui qui sait, et de recevoir ses instructions,
quant la manire de les reprsenter ? [9] Si Bazin repousse
ladaptation dans sa dimension de trahison cest quelle est une
approche superficelle des choses, une dcalcomanie dobjet.
La fidlit quil propose pour nommer le rapport du cinma aux
autres arts nest pas une fidlit objectale. Elle suggre, bien que ce
ne soit pas nonc en ces termes par lui, que le rel du film est de
se heurter dautres rels -quil ne peut capturer puisque le rel
nest pas objectal-, gnrant ce quil nomme des tres esthtiques
nouveaux. (Prenons lexpression comme une mtaphore de
linvention cinmatographique.)
Alain Badiou lve toute quivoque esthtique : Et enfin, le
mouvement est circulation impure dans le total des autres activit
artistiques, il loge lide dans lallusion contrastante, elle-mme
soustractive, des arts arrachs leur destination. [] Il nexiste
en ralit aucun moyen de faire mouvement dun art un autre. Les
arts sont ferms []. Et pourtant le cinma est bien lorganisation
de ces mouvements impossibles. [10]
A propos du Journal dun cur de campagne, de Bresson, Bazin
crit : On comprend que cette ralit au second degr de luvre
pralable et celle que capture directement la camra ne puissent
semboter lune dans lautre, se prolonger, se confondre ; au
contraire leur rapprochement mme en accuse lhtrognit des
essences. [11]
Cest peut-tre avec son article sur Le Mystre Picasso de Clouzot
28

que lon peut le mieux comprendre lide de fidlit, cest--dire

limpuret, comme libert du cinaste, comme condition du cinma
-sous peine de mort, Elie Faure tait radical dans son dire. Cest
aussi l quapparaissent, dune faon vive, les limites de la fidlit
quand la pense est requise en dernier ressort par le sens. Sur le
rel de la cration dun tableau, Picasso, alors quil peint devant
nous, se prononce par une formule nigmatique et lapidaire : je ne
cherche pas, je trouve. Bazin repre le passage de lide du film
comme la rencontre de cette dclaration de Picasso avec les gestes
du peintre pris dans une dure : chaque trait de Picasso est une
cration qui en entrane une autre non comme une cause implique
un effet mais comme la vie engendre la vie. [] Toujours la dcision
de Picasso droute totalement notre attente. [12] La dure du film
permet le passage de lide de lart comme procdure sui
generis, immanente et singulire [13], ce qui semble en filigrane
dans le commentaire de Bazin, quil renforce en citant Picasso dans
le film : Il faudrait pouvoir montrer les tableaux qui sont sous les
tableaux.
L o Bazin se trompe, cest que le film nest en rien la rvlation
de la dure du tableau. Le cinma ne peut pas modifier le rel dun
art. La dure nappartient pas la peinture qui nest pas un art du
temps. Nous revenons leffet de suture connexe la recherche
dun effet de sens. Une fois de plus il savre mortifre :Ce que
Clouzot, lui, nous rvle enfin, cest la peinture, cest--dire un
tableau qui existe dans le temps, qui a sa dure, sa vie et
quelquefois -comme la fin du film- sa mort. [14] La mort est le
sens ultime de toute interprtation. Bazin efface, contredit ce quil
vient de reprer comme manant du film -la dure des gestes. Il
transfre ses remarques sur un objet : le tableau. (on peut
lgitimenent se demander : lequel ?) Il essaye de fusionner le rel
de deux arts trangers. Pourquoi, alors quil observe quen art la
vie engendre la vie, saute-t-il cette mtaphore biologique dun
cycle naissance, vie, mort ? Il semble bien que ce qui le pousse
cette acrobatie de linterprtation, et qui lui suggre cette ide de la
mort soit la question de la finitude de luvre. Picasso, un
moment, dclare : cest fini.
Lide qui traverse le film, cest quune uvre dart est finie. Mais
finie ne signifie pas morte. La dcision de Picasso darrter de
29

peindre provoque un choc, une surprise car cela apparat rellement

comme arbitraire. Mais, la rflexion, cest absolument
indispensable pour que le tableau existe enfin. Car nous navons pas
encore vu -littralement- le tableau, ce tableau singulier que le
peintre ne peut nous livrer que fini. Il faut donc prendre fini dans
son sens grec : lachvement immanent de toute la perfection qui
est la sienne. [15]
Elisabeth BOYER

30