BENJAMIN FONDANE ET WALTER BENJAMIN : DEUX APPROCHES DU CINÉMA NOURRIES DE DADA
BENJAMIN FONDANE AND WALTER BENJAMIN: TWO APPROACHES OF CINEMA BORN FROM DADA

Summary/Abstract: Benjamin Fondane and Walter Benjamin: Two Approaches of Cinema Born from Dada. This paper aims at comparing two different approaches of cinema inspired by the artistic experiences of Dadaism. Benjamin Fondane, besides promoting internationally the films of European avant-garde movements (Man Ray, René Clair, Henri Gad, Germaine Dulac), wrote some critical texts and some poems (Trois scenarii. Ciné-poèmes, 1928) shaped on Dadaist patterns. Fondane also directed Tararira (1936) – a lost movie, which is considered here the last great project of Dadaist cinema. As for Walter Benjamin, in his seminal essay, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936), he states that “Dadaism attempted to create by pictorial – and literary – means the effects which the public today seeks in the film.”, and he investigates the link between Dada and cinema under the sign of shock. In Walter Benjamin’s essay, there are many ideas anticipated by Fondane: all of these are analyzed here.

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