Under the sign of Sonate à Kreutzer: cinephilia, amateurism, legitimation

Sous le signe de la sonate à Kreutzer : cinéphilie, amateurisme, légitimation

Marina Takami (1)

1 UP8 - Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis

Éric Rohmer's 1956 film Sonata à Kreutzer (available in restored digital format since 2013 ), filmed in silent format and later sonorized using Cahiers du cinéma's magnetic tape recorder, depicts the cinephilia in Paris in the 1950s, in close relation with the evocation of musical art. Based on films, radio transmissions, and documentai archives, the analysis highlights a transposition of the musician character found in the namesake work of Russian author Léon Tolstoï, which inspires this adaptation, to a movie critic in the film. The figuration of the Cahiers magazine editorial board members in this amateur film allows us to link the critic' s work and the practice of music listening. Based on this quasi­documentary transposition, it has been stated that these cri tics' cinephilia is inspired by Beethoven's music. Along these lines, in 2010, Godard makes the film-tribute dedicated to Maurice Schérer, Éric Rohmer's real name, under the aegis ofBeethoven's Kreutzer sonata.

Mots clés: Beethoven; Cahiers du cinéma; cinephilia; film critic; listening; music; Rohmer; Sonata à Kreutzer

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société

Marina Takami. Sous le signe de la sonate à Kreutzer : cinéphilie, amateurisme, légitimation. Cycnos, 2018, Les représentations de la cinéphilie, 34 (1), pp.45-58. ⟨hal-03169282⟩