Pierre Billard

Pierre Billard (3 July 1922 – 10 November 2016) was a French journalist, film critic and historian of cinema.

Career Born in Dieppe (Seine-Maritime), Pierre Billard followed the courses of resistant Valentin Feldman during the Occupation of France. They would become close and the teaching of Feldman marked him permanently. He then went to study at the Sorbonne, before specializing in cinema.

President of the "Fédération française des ciné-clubs" from 1952, in 1954 he founded the magazine , of which he was chief editor from Cinéma 54 to Cinéma 67. After he worked as journalist and film critic for Les Nouvelles littéraires, Candide and L'Express, he was one of the cofounders of the weekly Le Point where he directed the cultural pages until 1987. In the early 1980s, he was also editor-in-chief of the professional weekly magazine Le Film français.

Pïerre Billard has taught the history of cinema at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris and published several books including Louis Malle, le rebelle solitaire. He is the father of journalist and historian of cinema, Jean-Michel Frodon.

In 1995, he published the book L’Âge classique du cinéma français, in conjunction with that of his son Jean-Michel, L'Âge moderne du cinéma français.

Publications 1958: Vamps, L'Art du Siècle 1966: Jean Grémillon, Anthologie du cinéma 1995: L'Âge classique du cinéma français, Flammarion ; René Clair Award 1997: D'or et de palmes, le Festival de Cannes, series "Découvertes Gallimard" vol. 314, Éditions Gallimard 1998: Le Mystère René Clair, Plon 1999: Astérix & Obélix contre César, l'histoire d'un film, Paris, Plon 2003: Louis Malle, le rebelle solitaire, Plon; Prix Goncourt de la Biographie 2006: André Gide et Marc Allégret, le roman secret, Plon