In this expanded edition of Cinéma Radical, first published in French in 2008, the artist Christian Lebrat reflects on a cinema that “follows its own rules and questions the very definition of the medium.”

2nd edition. English translation by Anna Doyle. To be published in May 2021

There is a cinema that has developed off the beaten track inventing its own rules. There is a cinema independent from the commercial world as well as from industry, the art world, and outside of the fashion world. There is a cinema in which every great film challenges the very definition of cinema. There is a cinema which constantly renews both the forms and the modalities of its existence. There is a cinema that forms a solid, inescapable core.

It is this radical cinema that the author endeavors to explore through the analysis of some major works by the following filmmakers: Stan Brakhage, Robert Breer, Germaine Dulac, Hollis Frampton, Ken Jacobs, Peter Kubelka, Fernand Léger, Maurice Lemaître, Man Ray, Jonas Mekas, Paul Sharits, Michael Snow, among many others like: Pierre Rovere, René Vautier, Gérard Fromanger / Jean-Luc Godard, Claudine Eizykman, Guy Fihman, Alain Montesse, Antonio De Bernardi, Jean-Claude Rousseau, Wim Wenders, Raoul Grimoin-Sanson, Georges Franju, René Vautier, Alain Montesse, Jean Vigo, etc.

Written over a period of more than thirty years to accompany retrospectives, publications and exhibitions, the texts gathered in this volume are grouped into five distinct chapters (1. THE POWER OF CINEMA IS NOT LINKED TO NARRATIVE  2. THE ART OF CINEMA IS SELF-SUFFICIENT. 3. SOME BORDERLINES EXPERIMENTS 4. FILM MOVEMENTS 5. FRENCH EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA: THE 1970S) The book begins with an interview in which the author explains the conditions of existence, of teaching and of the development of experimental cinema.

E-BOOK EDITION Already available

This e-book edition of Lebrat’s essays also include essays on Lebrat’s own work as an artist, with texts by Xavier Baert, Olivier Michelon, Prosper Hillairet, Raphaël Bassan, Andrea Monti, Fred Camper, Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof, Angela Joosse, Kelly Egan, Elizabeth Jenny, Vincent Deville & Emeric de Lastens.

Links are provided to many of the films discussed.

Filmmaker and photographer Christian Lebrat founded Paris Expérimental Editions and has organized several major experimental cinema events including Jeune, dure et pure! Une histoire du cinéma d’avant-garde et expérimental en France, presented at the Cinémathèque française in 2000.