French Literature Reviews - 2026

Vincent Jacques, Borges and Cinema
Comparative and World Literature

Review published on Acta Fabula (May 2025, vol. 26, no. 5) as part of the critical dossier “Visual Devices”: “Borges, both 'everything to do' and 'nothing to do' with cinema”, by Vincent Annen

Jorge Luis Borges always had a keen interest in cinema. Between 1931 and 1944, he published several notes on films, primarily in the journal Sur, and collaborated on the screenplays (with another master of Argentine literature, Adolfo Bioy Casares) for two significant films by Hugo Santiago, Invasión (1969) and Les Autres (1974), films imbued with the 'magical realism' characteristic of both writers. Furthermore, in the prologue to Histoire universelle de l’infamie (1935), Borges stated that his early attempts at fiction were derived from the cinema of Josef von Sternberg. More generally, the aim is to explore how Borges might have developed his unique form of literary narration by meditating, among other things, on the specificity of cinematic narration.

Vincent Jacques is a senior lecturer in philosophy at ENSA Versailles. A specialist in contemporary French philosophy and image theories, he also has an interest in 'essayistic' documentary cinema (Jean-Luc Godard, Harun Farocki, Chris Marker, etc.).

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One can read an article by Pierre Senges on en-attendant-nadeau.fr:

The most famous blind man in modern literature possessed the authentic gaze of a cinephile: he noted the use of deep focus in Citizen Kane, lamented the absence of low-angle shots in King Kong, elevated Design for Living to the status of a perfect film, and criticized an essayist for failing to mention Sternberg's name – proof of the accuracy of his tastes. Vincent Jacques does not merely evoke Borges as a critic or an admirer of popular, non-naturalistic, and intelligently narrated films (film noir and westerns); he also convincingly demonstrates how Borges's interest in cinema partly shaped his writing. He introduces us to Borges the screenwriter, co-author (with Bioy Casares) of the celebrated and perplexing Invasión, directed by Hugo Santiago, a film that has entered the ambiguous category of cult classics and which Borges himself admitted he didn't understand. The thirty pages dedicated to this film, and then to Les autres, by the same authors, are particularly rich, detailed, and insightful. In a brief conclusion, the author compares Borges to Jean-Luc Godard; a first reading leaves one perplexed, a second leaves one doubtful. Borges's universal library is a world away from Godard's amateurish and sometimes unfortunate collages, and nothing in his work aligns with the slogan 'Culture is dying, let us magnify its ruins.' Connecting Borges with Alain Resnais (mentioned in passing) would have been more pertinent, amusing, and fruitful: an antidote to the funereal. — Pierre Senges

The intersections between literature and the cinematic medium have long provided a fertile ground for critical inquiry within Hispanic and comparative studies. Scholars of modern narrative frequently examine how visual techniques, editing practices, and early film theory influenced twentieth-century prose writers. Jorge Luis Borges always had a keen interest in cinema. Between 1931 and 1944, he published several notes on films, primarily in the journal *Sur*, and collaborated on the screenplays with Adolfo Bioy Casares for two films by Hugo Santiago, Invasión (1969) and Les Autres (1974). Furthermore, in the prologue to *Histoire universelle de l’infamie* (1935), Borges stated that his early attempts at fiction were derived from the cinema of Josef von Sternberg.

Borges was an attentive viewer of popular genres like film noir and westerns. The page notes that his interest in cinema partly shaped his writing, and he is discussed as a screenwriter who co-authored *Invasión* and *Les Autres* with Bioy Casares, directed by Hugo Santiago. Readers interested in the intersections of twentieth-century Argentine literature and film history may find this critical overview relevant to their studies of modern narrative art.