I warmly thank Bernard Benoliel, Emmanuel Bonin, Charles-Antoine Bosson, Stéphane Delorme, Philippe Delvosalle, Ivora Cusak, Fergus Daly, Agathe Dreyfus, Pierre Hecker, Alexander Horwath, Kent Jones, Bernd Kiefer, Maria Klonaris, Solange Marcin, Gabriela Trujillo, and Gaëlle Vidalie for their help with this book. Special thanks go to Thana’s husband, Robert Lund.
Several parts of this book were encouraged and supported by commissions, some from eminent Ferrarans: Aimé Ancian (Sofa), Raymond Bellour (Trafic), Alain Bergala, Carole Desbarats, David Dessites (Dreamlight Entertainment), Catherine Gillet (Musée du Cinéma de Bruxelles), Danielle Hibon (Musée du Jeu de Paume), Luc Lagier (Court-Circuit), Jean-Pierre Moussaron (Why Not?), Olivier Pierre (l’Ecran de Saint-Denis), Muriel Thomé (Court-Circuit), Jean-Baptiste Thoret (Simulacres), Geneviève Troussier (Café des Images), Philippe Truffaut (Court-Circuit), and Jean-Pierre Vasseur (Opening).
This book originated in a course I taught at Université Paris I (Institut d’Art et d’Archéologie), directed by Professor Jean Gili. I fondly thank all my friends and students who attended this course so early on a Saturday morning; for their remarkable contributions, I would like to acknowledge Xavier Baert, Briana Berg de Marignac, Laure Bergala, Laurent Champoussin, Cassandra Cuman, Marc Dante, Séverin de Lajarte, Émeric de Lastens, Vincent Deville, Jean-Marc Elsholz, Yann Gonzalez, Florent Guézengar, Jérôme Momcilovicz, Pascal Sénequier, Seung-hee Seo, and Vivien Villani. In this context, Adrian Martin and Brad Stevens came—from Melbourne and London, respectively—to offer us magnificent seminars.
Thanks to Lionel Soukaz for his crucial remarks on The Addiction, which more than any other commentary prompted my reflections on this film.
Without the daily support of Michelle Brenez, Pierre-Jacques Brenez, and Titus Brenez-Michaud, I would not have been able to write a single line of this book.
The manuscript benefited from indispensable rereadings by Ferraran experts, whom I can never thank enough: Aïcha Bahcelioglu, Sébastien Clerget, Stéphane du Mesnildot, Sylvain George, Pierre Gras, David Matarasso, Alberto Pezzotta, and Louis-George Schwartz. Special thanks to David Pellecuer for his inexhaustible kindness.
Adrian Martin—with the invaluable help of Helen Bandis and Grant McDonald, his comrades at Rouge—strengthened the content of the book by carefully verifying every shot and phenomenon described (as well as finding every citation) for the English translation. Raymond Bellour scrutinized the original manuscript with incomparabale care. I thank them all affectionately for the time they devoted to this project and for the rigor that is directly proportionate to their sensitivity and intellectual generosity.
At the origin of this book, as with so many others, there was an initiative by Jonathan Rosenbaum, without whom international cinephilic life would not be as living, fluent, and fertile as it currently is.
I warmly thank James Naremore, director of the Contemporary Film Directors series at the University of Illinois Press, for his trust and patience.
I dedicate this work to Brad Stevens, a true cinema historian, with affection, gratitude, and admiration.