ABSTRACT
Most historians of the cinema know Ricciotto Canudo (1879-1923) solely as the author of two early essays on fi lm, or, alternatively, as the originator
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of those elusive appellations, “The Sixth Art” and “The Seventh Art.” Canudo’s involvement in cinematic theory, however, complemented a prodigious cultural activity in early twentieth-century Paris, almost unrivalled in its scope and scale. He authored several novels, ballets, screenplays and volumes of poetry; theoretical treatises on music; a study of Gabriele D’Annunzio’s theater; a literary adaptation of Abel Gance’s fi lm, La Roue; and nearly one thousand critical essays on topics ranging from the castles of Puglia to the paintings of Marc Chagall. During the same years, he organized colloquia on Mediterranean languages and culture, lectured regularly at the École des Hautes Études on the literary legacy of Dante, and founded the world’s fi rst Cinema club, the Club des Amis du Septième Art. In ways similar to his colleague, Guillaume Apollinaire, Canudo formed a vital nexus between artists and critics, and similarly championed the cause of French modernism with the fervor of the converted (both were permanent émigrés to Paris). The founder and editor of the groundbreaking journals Montjoie! and the Gazette des Sept Arts, as well as a contributor to some of the most prominent publications from the turn of the century, Canudo served as a lightning rod for both the Parisian avant-gardes at large, and early fi lm theorists in particular. Few fi gures in the history of early twentieth-century cinema were as prominent or as polyfacetic as Canudo.
