Georges Sadoul
Georges Sadoul (4 February 1904 – 13 October 1967) was a French film critic, journalist and cinema writer. He is known for writing encyclopedias of film and filmmakers, many of which have been translated into English.
Georges Sadoul
Anonymous (writer) Unknown author · Film Nr. 24 · Public domain
- Name
- Georges Sadoul
- Born
- 4 February 1904
- Birthplace
- Nancy, France
- Died
- 13 October 1967
- Place of death
- Paris, France
- Occupation
- * Journalist
- Nationality
- France
- Fields
- film studies
- Education
- Faculty of Arts of Paris
- Languages
- French
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Georges Sadoul (4 February 1904 – 13 October 1967) was a French film critic, journalist and cinema writer. He is known for writing encyclopedias of film and filmmakers, many of which have been translated into English.
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In this article
Biography
Biography
Georges Sadoul studied at Faculty of Arts of Paris. The recorded working language is French. The field of work recorded is film studies. Employment is recorded with Faculty of Arts of Paris, Institut des hautes études cinématographiques and L'Est Républicain.

Portrait de Georges Sadoul.
Photo: J. Barcó, Nancy
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Georges Sadoul • Born — 4 February 1904 • Birthplace — Nancy, France • Died — 13 October 1967 • Place of death — Paris, France • Organization — University of Paris, Sorbonne IDHEC • Occupation — * Journalist • writer • film historian
Biography
Biography
Sadoul was born in Nancy. His father, Charles Sadoul, was a well-known ethnologist. At the age of 19, a student in Nancy, he collaborated with L'Est Républicain and founded the Nancy-Paris Committee. The objective of this committee is to allow the population of Nancy to meet Parisian productions and artists. He notably brought there Jean Epstein, Henry Prunières, André Lurçat, Jacques Rivière, Jacques Copeau and André Lhote. Once a surrealist, he became a member of the French Communist Party in 1932. He was editor-in-chief of the magazine for young people, published by the PCF, Mon Camarade. He was responsible for the cinematographic section of the journal Regards, from 1936. Until the war, he published articles regularly in L'Humanité and the Cahiers du bolchévisme. In his Diary of war, he recounts at length his phoney war and the debacle of 1940. Sadoul was also a member of the Resistance, alongside Louis Aragon, and responsible for the Front National des Intellectuels for the southern zone from 1941 to 1944. He collaborated with the clandestine Les Letters Françaises and the Stars. • Illustration — Georges Sadoul (on the left), French government official Dieterle, Fourre Cormeray and director Jean Grémillon (on the right) at Okęcie airport in Warsaw, 1947. After the Second World War he published in six volumes his main work General History of Cinema ("Histoire générale du cinéma"). He viewed films around the world with a focus on developing countries. Throughout his career, Sadoul was accused of having an ideological bias in his works. He taught cinema history at the IDHEC, and also taught at the Sorbonne's Institut de filmologie. He was the first secretary general of the French Federation of Film Clubs and the International Federation of Film Clubs. He published of some of the most important reviews of the era in magazines such as Cahiers du Cinéma. He died in Paris at the age of sixty-three.
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Nancy.
Birth place
4th arrondissement of Paris.
Death place
Primary material
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reference work
- “Georges Sadoul”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q935301: Georges Sadoul
General reference · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Acte de naissance n°246 avec mentions de mariage et du décès. Cote:2 E 292. Archives Municipales de Nancy. 67/206.
- 2.Acte de décès n°1114. Archives de Paris. 12/31.
- 3.Georges Sadoul rédacteur en chef de Mon Camarade. Strenae.
- 4.Jean-Noël Lafargue, Entre la plèbe et l'élite : les ambitions contraires de la bande dessinée, édition Atelier Perrousseaux, 2012, .
- 5.notice Georges Sadoul. Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier français.
- 6.Et pourtant je tourne. Robert Laffont. 1976. 978-2-221-12444-4.
- 7.Histoire du cinéma mondial, des origines à nos jours. Flammarion. 1968.
- 8.Grammaire du cinéma. Nouveau Monde. 2010. 978-2-84736-458-3.
- 9.Charles et Georges Sadoul. ccfr.bnf.fr.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 6
- Mon Camarade. éd. la Mémoire vivante. 1997. 978-2-843-09001-1.
- Le cinéma est à nous. Éditions L'Harmattan. 2005. 978-2-747-58908-6.
- Theodore. Huff. Sadoul et la recherche en cinéma. 1895. Mille huit cent quatre-vingt-quinze. 86. 2018. 120-123.
- Les Lettres françaises et Les Étoiles dans la clandestinité, 1942-1944. le Cherche Midi. 2008. 978-2-749-11229-9.
- À l'encre bleu nuit. éditions BakerStreet. 2014. 978-2-917559-42-0.
- Georges Sadoul, un intellectuel en cinéma, du surréalisme à l'histoire. éditions Mimésis. 2023. 978-8-869-76392-2.
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 15 August 2026.
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