Original program for the Festival du film maudit, held in 1949 by Objectif 49, signed and dated by Jean Cocteau

Paris: Objectif 49 / La Cinémathèque Française, 1949. Vintage program for the Festival du film maudit, held in Biarritz from July 29 through August 5, 1949, by French avant-garde cinema club Objectif 49. SIGNED on the title page by Objectif 49 co-founder Jean Cocteau: "Souvenir de Jean Cocteau / 1949" ("A token from Jean Cocteau / 1949"). Text and titles in French.

Objectif 49 was founded in Paris, after the close of the Second World War. Although only active for two years, the club's influence was significant, in no small part due to its lofty goals—the promotion of new avant-garde films, the reevaluation of uncommercial and "failed" films, the foundation of alternative institutions for educating film audiences, and, most broadly, the creation of entirely new systems for distributing and exhibiting cinema in France. The group staged over 40 one-night events, three festivals, and counted Robert Bresson, Eric Rohmer, René Clement, Jean Grémillon, and many other cinematic and literary luminaries among its ranks.

Organized by Cocteau and co-founder André Bazin, with a name drawn from Mallarmé's "poètes maudits" ("cursed poets"), the Festival du film maudit was Objectif 49's most important public event, intended to be a rival to the Cannes Film Festival. Held at the posh Grand Casino on the coast, the festival was notably attended by then-little-known filmmakers Jacques Rivette and François Truffaut, who were accompanied in by Cocteau himself, having initially failed to make their way past the doorman due to their "bohemian" behavior and attire. Films screened included Kenneth Anger's "Fireworks," Jean Grémillon's "Lumière d'été," Robert Montgomery's "Ride the Pink Horse," Jacques Tati's "Jour de fête," Jean Vigo's "Zéro de conduite" and "L'Atalante," among many others.

In the wake of the festival's success, "film maudit" became a term of praise used by "Cahiers du cinéma" writers in the 1950s, and the term was later adopted by the publication's American counterparts. The festival would be re-staged the following year, but Cocteau and Bazin were not involved, and the event was less well received.

A memento from a transitional time in the cinema of postwar France, in which the foundations were laid for the proliferation of New Wave, avant-garde, and experimental films and film culture in the years to come.

11 x 9 inches. 40 pages. Very Good plus or better in wrappers, with a string binding.

[Book #170399]