Pierre Lherminier

Pierre Thévenet, known as Pierre Lherminier, (2 January 1931 – 25 January 2021) was a French cinematic historian and writer.

Pierre Lherminier
Born	Pierre Thévenet 2 January 1931 Oullins, France
Died	25 January 2021(2021-01-25) (aged 90)
Nationality	French
Occupation	Historian

Biography

Lherminier was the brother of film producer René Thévenet. He began working in cinema with his contributions to a French film encyclopedia. He became well-known when he became director of the "Cinéma d'aujourd'hui" collection, published by Éditions Seghers [fr].^[1] He published "biofilms" about great French directors.^[2] It was released on 22 March 1962 and was commended by Le Film français.^[3] Jean Collet's segment on Jean-Luc Godard sold over 500,000 copies.

In 1968, he entered a film competition with the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques, but it was cancelled due to the events of May 68. In 1970, he left Seghers and joined Robert Laffont [fr]. Five years later, he became an independent publisher and reprised "Cinéma d'aujourd'hui" and created several other collections. When "Cinéma d'aujourd'hui" was re-released in 1979, it was once again hailed by critics in the Revue du cinéma.^[4] He stopped self-publishing in 1988 and joined upper management at Éditions des Quatre-Vents.^[5] He would sign several books and assist in the publishing of books by Jean Vigo and Louis Delluc.^[6] In 2012, he published the first volume of Annales du cinéma français.^[7][8][9] Critic Philippe Roger [fr] called it a "modest and ambitious" project which constitutes a "sum of intelligent erudition",^[10] and Laurent Aknin called it a "work of reference for all to order first".^[11] He became Editor-in-Chief of Présence du cinéma français and created the bookstore Contacts in 1955, which closed its doors in 2013.^[12]

In 1973, Lherminier founded the Comité de liaison de l'édition cinématographique, which organized a cinematic book fair in 1985, an event subsequently adopted by Cinémathique Française. He deposited his archives at the Institute for Contemporary Publishing Archives in 1996.^[13]

Pierre Lherminier died on 25 January 2021 at the age of 90.^[14]

Works

• L'Art du cinéma (1960)
• Luis Buñuel (1964)
• Jean Vigo (1967)
• Cinéma 2000 (1974)
• Cinéma pleine page : l'édition cinématographique de langue française (1985)
• Chronique du cinéma (1992)
• Signoret, Montand : deux vies dans le siècle (2005)
• Jean Vigo, un cinéma singulier (2007)
• Louis Delluc et le cinéma français (2008)
• Annales du cinéma français : les voies du silence (1895-1929) (2012)