French Literature Reviews - 2026
A. Keit, Brunius and Cinema
Theatre and Performance
Bibliographic reference: Alain Keit, Brunius et le cinéma, Nouvelles Editions Jean-Michel Place, collection "Le cinéma des poètes" directed by Carole Aurouet, 2015.
By spending their lives hunting down the invisible, certain poets run the perverse risk of becoming scarcely visible themselves, hidden behind their own shadow—all the more so if that shadow is vast and sprawling. A revealer, pathfinder, discerning cinephile, precise theorist, actor, filmmaker, editor, and translator, Jacques-Bernard Brunius remains, to this day, poorly recognized byței the general public. His name and the scope of his work are respected and admired by his peers; those who know him need no reminding that Brunius is "the man in the striped jersey frisking after Jane Marken in Jean Renoir's Partie de campagne, or the customer demanding a French beret in Pierre Prévert's L'affaire est dans le sac." Yet such reference points are of little use. His slender silhouette and slightly drawling voice reveal nothing of the films he wrote and directed, his film reviews, his discoveries, his activism within the Surrealist group, or his relentless struggle to highlight the modernity of the avant-gardes while exposing their impostures. This study will focus primarily on the films of Jacques-Bernard Brunius, their expansive surrealist breaths and inspirations, and their straight, broken, and curved lines—lines that mirror the paths he charted and followed.
Alain Keit is a lecturer and director of the Cinéma Jacques-Brel in Garges-lès-Gonesse (Val d'Oise). He has authored several books on cinema, including Sacha Guitry, vérités, représentations, simulacre and Le Crime de monsieur Lange, autopsie d'un meurtre, published in 1999 and 2010 by Éditions du Céfal. He is currently preparing a study on Roman Polanski's The Tenant for Éditions Yellow Now, with whom he co-edited in 2011—alongside Jacques Deniel and Marcos Uzal—the collective volume Jerzy Skolimowski, signes particuliers.
Jacques-Bernard Brunius stands as a multifaceted figure within the history of twentieth-century cinema and the Surrealist movement. Active as a filmmaker, theorist, actor, and critic, he navigated the intersections of avant-garde experimentation and cultural critique. Alain Keit examines this trajectory, shedding light on a creator whose extensive contributions to film culture have remained largely obscured from the general public despite earning the deep respect of his peers. The volume illuminates the distinct aesthetic currents and intellectual engagements that defined Brunius's cinematic output within the broader landscape of French film history.
This work serves as a valuable resource for film scholars, historians of surrealism, and enthusiasts of early avant-garde cinema seeking a deeper understanding of marginal yet influential practitioners. By analyzing the structural motifs and thematic inspirations present in Brunius's films, the study addresses broader questions concerning the reception of modernist art and the mechanics of cinematic representation. Readers interested in the collaborative networks of French filmmakers and the theoretical debates surrounding the interwar and postwar avant-gardes will find this focused exploration particularly enlightening.