Introduction

Bonjour Cinéma, published in October 1921, features at its center a set of essays Epstein had published in film journals earlier in the same year and then revised for this collection. The first of these articles, “Grossissement,” appeared in Epstein's own arts journal Promenoir in the February/March issue; “Le Cinéma Mystique” (renamed here “Ciné Mystique”) and “Le Sens 1 bis” appeared in Louis Delluc's magazine Cinéa in the spring and summer of that year. Surrounding this core of essays is every manner of textual, poetic, and graphic play: in addition to several poems and pithy statements about the cinema, the slim volume includes pages whose designs derive from the world of movie fandom (posters, programs, fan magazines, music sheets, etc.) and several drawings both by Claude Dalbanne and Epstein himself. Bonjour Cinéma simultaneously sketches out several of the issues that were deeply important to the development of Epstein's theory of film – photogénie among them – and pays homage to popular moviegoing through an exuberant, infectiously enthusiastic approach to cinema.

– Sarah Keller

Continuous Screenings [1921]

Translated by Sarah Keller

[Jean Epstein, “Séances continuelles,” Bonjour Cinéma (Paris: Éditions de la Sirène, 1921), pp. 13-15.]