Les Cahiers du Cinema was
the publication on
film criticism from the 1950s-1970s. Literally, "Notebooks of the Cinema," the
magazine was founded in 1951 by
Andre Bazin, one of the great
pillars of early
film theory. It quickly collected a set of writers and directors inflicted upon and/or worshipped by film students ever since; they include
Eric Rohmer,
Francois Truffaut,
Claude Chabrol, and
Jean-Luc Godard.
The
Cahiers are the main reason why art film snobs tend to sound like they're speaking French half the time. Many of their terms like
film noir, auteur, and
nouvelle vague (or
New Wave, a cinematic movement they pretty much created)
leaked off the journal's pages and at least nominally into the English language. (hey, at least they come up in the ol'
Merriam-Webster) Not to mention their leakage into the heads of the next generation of
Hollywood filmmakers!
Although it's not been accused of
turning the film world upside down in recent years, the
magazine is still around, on sale right next to
Premiere in French tabacs everywhere.
Source: history classnotes, plus a little fact-checking at http://www.hoveyda.org/cahiers.html