New Film Dictionary Prioritizes Godard, Omits Hitchcock Entry

A new film dictionary edited by Antoine de Baecque and Philippe Chevallier, published by Presses Universitaires de France, opens with a quote from Jean-Luc Godard: 'Cinema is a thought that takes form, a form that thinks.' The volume covers theorists from Bazin to Stanley Cavell, via Kracauer and Deleuze, but controversially omits a dedicated entry for Alfred Hitchcock, while including Steven Spielberg (reduced to cheap psychology), Stanley Kubrick (reduced to 2001: A Space Odyssey), and Francis Ford Coppola (reduced to Apocalypse Now). Paul Verhoeven is only mentioned in passing in the 'Off-screen' article. Three brilliant articles by Jean-Baptiste Thoret stand out. De Baecque unearths a 1920s text by Aragon and his later visionary taste for Le Mépris and Breathless. Michel Foucault gets a perhaps overrated entry, while Jacques Rancière, who has integrated cinema into his thought for thirty years, receives an excellent article by Dork Zabunyan. Jean-Claude Biette appears, but Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet are relegated to the index. The dictionary notably omits Beirut-based filmmakers Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, and Samuel Beckett, director of Film. The 800-page work is described as a sum of choices.