Recollecting Lotte Eisner: Cinema, Exile, and the Archive, by Naomi DeCelles

Abstract

It has been a great pleasure to read this very impressive monograph. Wielding a vast array of archival material, Naomi DeCelles traces the life and influence of German-French film critic and writer Lotte Eisner (1896–1983), co-founder of the Cinémathèque in Paris. DeCelles’ level of historical analysis is suitably advanced for such a subject, so much so that this book would probably appeal mostly to film historians and scholars of film historiography. That said, the book’s clear diachronic structure—coupled with its lucid prose—provides a very readable and digestible examination of an overlooked but critical voice within film history as a whole. In this vein, DeCelles clearly sets up her scholarly intention from the outset: in short, Eisner was extremely influential in inter- and post-war German cinema, and thus deserves much overdue scholarly attention.

Keywords

• feminist
• queer
• archival methods
• historiography