Olivier Rousseau, 1967-

Biography

Olivier Rousseau holds a PhD from the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and wrote a thesis entitled Les Formats larges dans le cinéma français de fiction (1953-2000) : histoire des techniques, production, exploitation, esthétique, under the supervision of Jean A. Gili, defended in 2007. Senior teacher of modern literature, he has taught literature, expression-communication and cinema for over 20 years. He is currently editor-lexicographer at the Dictionary Department of the Académie française in Paris. He has published several articles on the history and aesthetics of wide formats in France (including “Le Format large en France (1953-2000): de la modernité à la cinématographicité de l’image”, Cahiers du CIRCAV, 2010; “Les procédés anamorphiques concurrents du CinémaScope (1953-1971), Le CinémaScope entre art et industrie, 2002) or on the peplum (“In CinemaScope. Péplum américain et format large : le spectacle total”, Positif, 2000). He has also taken part in several conferences (including ‘Le format large en France (1953-2009): statut singulier d’une innovation pérenne’, Impact Conference, Cinémathèque québécoise,Montréal, 2011; “Statistiques des genres des films larges en France (1953-2000). Spécificité française et interaction entre genre et valeurs de production”, Colloque IRCAV/Studies in French Cinema, Paris, 2010). He was also a lecturer at the Cinémathèque française as part of the Conservatoire des techniques cinématographiques in 2008 (“Technique et esthétique du CinemaScope”), and again in 2017 (“CinemaScope, DyaliScope, Franscope: l’aventure du scope français dans les années 1950 et 1960.” ). He is a member of the C.S.T. (Commission supérieure technique de l’image et du son). (https://independent.academia.edu/OlivierRousseau)