French Literature Reviews - 2026

A.-E. Halpern, Michaux and Cinema
Art and Visual Culture

Bibliographic reference: Anne-Elisabeth Halpern, Michaux et le cinéma, Nouvelles Editions Jean-Michel Place, "Le cinéma des poètes" series, 2016. EAN13: 9782858939824.

Born in 1899 and thus a contemporary of the birth of cinema, Henri Michaux was as fond of scientific documentaries—which he watched with Emil Cioran—as he was of horror films, to which he would drag Joyce Mansour. He practically made his literary debut with an article on Charlie Chaplin in 1922. Although he was never an actor, unlike his friend Antonin Artaud, he provided the voiceover for Éric Duvivier's documentary on drugs, Images du monde visionnaire, for which he also wrote the text. Even though this film ultimately disappointed him, cinema accompanied him throughout his life, sometimes explicitly, but always continuously, as the technical realization of his ideal of movement, which also defined his view of existence. What Michaux preferred in life, painting, music, and even writing itself, was kinetics. This dreamer of moving images achieved his goal through the brush, drugs, poetry, and everything dynamic in the world: to make his own cinema and thus escape a deadly stasis.

Anne-Élisabeth Halpern is an Associate Professor of French Literature at the University of Reims. She has published a book on the relationship between Michaux and science: Le Laboratoire du poète. Her research focuses on modern poetry, the avant-garde, and the relationships between the arts. She is also the literary director of Éditions L’improviste.

Henri Michaux occupies a fascinating place in twentieth-century French literature and art, bridging modernist poetry, the avant-garde, and the visual arts. His engagement with cinema reflects broader intellectual currents of his time, during which writers and artists increasingly turned to the screen to rethink perception, rhythm, and representation. By examining his lifelong involvement with film—from early writings on Charlie Chaplin to later collaborations on documentaries—this study situates Michaux within the rich tradition of poet-cinephiles who viewed the moving image not merely as entertainment, but as a fundamental philosophical and aesthetic catalyst.

This volume will prove especially valuable to scholars and students of modern poetry, avant-garde film, and interdisciplinary artistic practices in twentieth-century France. It addresses key questions regarding the relationship between literature and kinetic arts, helping readers understand how visual media shaped Michaux's literary style and his broader quest to overcome stasis. Researchers focusing on French literature, film history, and the intersections between writing and visual culture will find it a rigorous and illuminating resource for further academic inquiry.