André Bazin: Jean Renoir (1971–) [EN, PT]

This classic in the literature of cinema represents the convergence of the three leading figures of French film: Jean Renoir, universally considered the greatest French director; André Bazin, the outstanding French film critic and theorist; and François Truffaut, the pioneer of la nouvelle vague. Bazin left this examination of Renoir’s films unfinished when he died in 1958; Truffaut collected and edited the essays, and added a comprehensive filmography in which Bazin, Truffaut, Jacques Rivette, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, and other Cahiers du Cinéma regulars comment on the films. Here are brilliant insights into the whole of Renoir’s oeuvre, from the avant-garde fantasy of La Petite Marchande d’Allumettes, through the epic humanism of Grand Illusion and The Rules of the Game, to the quiet grace of The River and the profound theatricality of The Golden Coach. Bazin shows why Renoir is the critical figure in the development of cinema since the silent era, and how he went beyond montage to give the art new expressive potential. Renoir’s work constitutes one of the most fully and beautifully elaborated visions in contemporary art, and nowhere is this humanistic vision better illuminated than in this book.

Originally published in French as Jean Renoir, avant-propos de Jean Renoir, éditions Champ libre, 1971
Translated by W. W. Halsey II and William H. Simon
Edited and with an Introduction by François Truffaut
Introduction by Jean Renoir
Publisher W.H.Allen, London & New York, a division of Howard & Wyndham Ltd., 1974
ISBN 0671214640
320 pages

Jean Renoir (English, trans. W. W. Halsey II and William H. Simon, 1974)
Jean Renoir: Filmografia (Portuguese, trans. Isabel Lobinho, 1975)

Marcel Mauss: The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies (1925–) [FR, EN, DE, RO]

“The Gift is a short book by the French sociologist Marcel Mauss and is the foundation of social theories of reciprocity and gift exchange.

It is perhaps the first systematic study of the custom, widespread in primitive societies from ancient Rome to present-day Melanesia, of exchanging gifts. The gift is conceived as a transaction forming part of all human, personal relationships between individuals and groups. These gift exchanges are at the same time moral, economic, juridical, aesthetic, religious, mythological and social phenomena.

The Gift has been very influential in anthropology, where there is a large field of study devoted to reciprocity and exchange. It has also influenced philosophers, artists and political activists, including Georges Bataille, Jacques Derrida and more recently the work of David Graeber.”

French edition
Essai sur le don: Forme et raison de l’échange dans les sociétés archaïques
Publisher Librairie Félix Alcan, Paris, 1925
157 pages
via Gallica

English edition
Translated by Ian Cunnison
With an Introduction by E. E. Evans-Pritchard
Publisher Cohen & West, London, 1966
130 pages

Another English edition
Translated by W. D. Halls
With a foreword by Mary Douglas
Publisher Routledge, London/New York, 1990
ISBN 041526748X
200 pages

New English edition
Edited, annotated and translated by Jane I. Guyer
Foreword by Bill Maurer
Publisher Hau Books, Chicago, 2016
ISBN 9780990505006
248 pages

Wikipedia

Essai sur le don (French, 1923-24/1925)
The Gift (English, 1966)
The Gift (English, 1990)
Die Gabe (German, added on 2014-2-6, DJVU)
Eseu despre dar (Romanian, trans. Silvia Lupescu, 1993; new edition, 1997, added on 2013-6-3, via sorin, updated on 2019-6-10)
The Gift: Expanded Edition (English, trans. Jane I. Guyer, 2016, added on 2016-4-24, updated on 2019-6-10: removed from Open Access by publisher)

Régis Debray: Vida e Morte da Imagem: Uma história do olhar no Ocidente (1992/94/95) [Portuguese/Spanish]

A imagem sempre dominou os homens, mas o olhar ocidental tem uma história e cada época seu inconsciente ótico. Antes de ser artístico, nosso olhar foi mágico. Atualmente tornou-se econômico.

Não há imagem em si. Seu estatuto e seus poderes modificaram-se ao sabor das revoluções técnicas e das crenças coletivas. Foi a lógica dessa evolução surpreendente que se pretendeu seguir aqui, passo a passo, desde as grotas ornadas até o painel de computador. Reconciliando, por uma abordagem midiológica, as visões material e espiritual do mundo da arte – tratadas, quase sempre, de forma exclusiva. A era das imagens terá sido apenas um breve parêntesis entre o tempo dos “ídolos” e o tempo do “visual” em que estamos mergulhados?

Em todo caso, a elucidação dos códigos invisíveis do visível dissipa alguns mitos tenazes, tais como “a história da Arte” ou “a Civilização da imagem”. Entrando na vídeosfera, com o salto decisivo do cinema para a televisão e, em breve, com a revolução numérica, vai ser preciso, sem dúvida, dizer adeus também à “sociedade do espetáculo”.

De Régis Debray, já. foi publicado -igualmente pela VOZES -o livro Curso de Midiologia Geral, que apresenta um estudo sobre os fatos de mediação e transmissão do verbo.

Originally published in French as Viet et mort de l’image: Une histoire du regard en Occident, Editions Gallimard, 1992

Portuguese edition: Vida e Morte da Imagem: Uma história do olhar no Ocidente
Translated by Guilherme Teixeira
Publisher Vozes, Petrópolis, RJ, Brazil, 1994
ISBN 8532610927
376 pages

Spanish edition: Vida y muerte de la imagen: Historia de la mirada en Occidente
Translated by Ramón Hervás
Publisher Edicios Paidós, Barcelona/Buenos Aires/México, 1994
ISBN 8475099815
318 pages

PDF [Portuguese]
PDF (no OCR) [Spanish]