Serge Daney in 2011

2012 will mark the 20th "anniversary" of Serge Daney's death in 1992. What is perhaps remarkable is that, despite the lack of proper English translations, Serge Daney has not fallen into oblivion and remains somewhat a cinephilic reference - litlle known, but too important to be ignored. Mentions keep appearing, quotes keep proping up, translations seem to happen. There may even be a few events organised for the the 20 year mark (for example the Trafic, 20 years, 20 films exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris on 11-30 January).

Serge Daney in 1968 at the Odeon theatre

Looking back at 2011, there are a number of signs that Serge Daney remains present in film criticism. Two books by Serge Daney were translated and published in Dutch, the 3-hour filmed interview "Journey of a Cine-Son" has been entirely translated and subititled in English, and a number of translations appeared (or re-appeared):

• A ritual of disappearance (Giscard), A ritual of appearance (Mitterand) and a few articles on Joseph Losey on this blog, 
• a new 1978 interview at Kino Slang, 
• Cinemeteorology: Too Early Too Late by Jonathan Rosenbaum,
• and Welles in Power on the Letter to Jane blog.

There were also two "disgressions": the translations of extracts from Louis Skorecki's Dialogue with Serge Daney and of some of Daney's postcards.

In France, a theatre play about Serge Daney, created in France in 2010, has enjoyed enough success that it continues to tour the country. Serge Daney was even the subject of a festival (The ethical point of view of film: Serge Daney, Croatia and Slovenia, December 2011 - if anybody attended, we're eager for ).

In all, reasons to hope, and to continue... despite the lack of time to dedicate to this blog. Humble apologies to the 2-3,000 people who came to this blog last year (and especially the 100 or so loyal followers who check out on new entries). I will try to do better in 2012.

Happy New Year everyone.

Laurent