Ph.D., M.A. (Cinema Studies), M.A. (Aesthetics), B.A. (History), University of Paris (Panthéon-Sorbonne) ; Ecole Normale Supérieure (Fontenay/St Cloud).
Ludovic Cortade
Associate Professor of French Literature, Thought and Culture
NYU : Global Research Institute (2015), Paulette Goddard Fellowship (2011), Humanities Initiative Grant (2009) ; Harvard University : Arthur Sachs Fellowship (2003-2005), Derek Bok Certificate of Distinction in Teaching (2004, 2005) ; Cornell University : Summer Research Grant (2002); Brown University : Summer Research Grant (2003); University of Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne : French Government Fellowship for Doctoral Studies (2000-2003).
Prof. Cortade has held visiting appointments at the University of Toronto and at Brown University. He has delivered talks at the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), SUNY Stony Brook, Yale, Columbia, The Sorbonne, the University of Chicago, Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art (Paris), Institut d’Histoire du Temps Présent (CNRS, Paris), the Centre Pompidou (Paris), and Seoul National University. His interviews are featured in the Criterion edition of Abdelatiff Kechiche’s The Secret of the Grain (2009), Le Monde and New York Public Radio.
The 20th-21th French Francophone International Conference he co-organized and hosted at NYU (March 6-8, 2014) drew 360 scholars hailing from 16 countries.
Research Fields:
- French Film: History, Aesthetics, Theory
- Politics, Sociology and mentalités in Film criticism
- French Literature and Film
- Cinematic Representations of Space
In his next book project, Cortade is focusing on the transdisiciplinary dialogue between social scientists and film critics and theorists. He investigates how the debates gravitating around Geography (Vidal de la Blache), Sociology (Durkheim, Mauss), and History (Annales School) influenced the evolution of French film criticism and paved the way for an anthropology of film from the 1930s to the advent of political modernism.
a) Authored Books:
2) Cinéma de l’immobilité : style, politique, réception. Paris : Publications de la Sorbonne (2008).
1) Antonin Artaud – la Virtualité incarnée (published by the « Institut d’Esthétique des Arts Contemporains », U.M.R. n°8592 C.N.R.S./Paris I), Paris-Montreal : L’Harmattan (2000). 
b) Book Chapters and Articles:
24) « The Graveyard by the Sea : Jean-Luc Godard and Paul Valéry » in Kevin J. Hayes and Timothy Barnard, Reading with Jean-Luc Godard, Caboose, forthcoming.
23) « ‘The Ineffable Joy of Being One with the Universe’: Absorption and Reflexivity in Louis Malle’s Phantom India » in Philippe Met (dir.), The Cinema of Louis Malle, Transatlantic Auteur, Wallflower Press/Columbia University Press, 2018.
22) « André Bazin et l’ontologie négative », French Forum 42 (2), 2017, pp. 313-326.
21) « André Bazin et l’historiographie française », French Cultural Studies 28(2), 2017, pp. 198-208.
20) « Bernard Palissy et la théorie du cinéma », French Review 90(3), 2017: pp. 115-124.
19) « Talkie » in Michel Leiris and Co., catalogue de l’exposition du Centre Pompidou à Metz (dir. Denis Hollier). Paris : Gallimard (2015).
18) « Le Mépris: Landscape as Tragedy » in Tom Conley and Thomas J. Kline (eds): A Companion to Jean-Luc Godard. Hoboken (NJ) : Wiley-Blackwell (2014).
17) « Fonctions du paysage dans Partie de campagne de Jean Renoir ». Revue de la société coréenne d’études française, Séoul (23 : 2013).
16) « Truffaut, Heir of Renoir: the Paradox of “Familiarity” » in Dudley Andrew and Anne Gillain (eds) : A Companion to François Truffaut. Hoboken (NJ) : Wiley-Blackwell (2013).
15) « Jean Epstein : Le cinéma du diable» in Sarah Keller and Jason Paul (eds) : Jean Epstein: Critical Essays and New Translations. Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press – Coll. « Film Theory in Media History », 2012 (317).
14) « Michel Leiris et Citizen Kane : la littérature et le cinéma en partage » in Jean-Loup Bourget and Jacqueline Nacache (eds) : Cinématismes. La littérature au prisme du cinéma. Berne/New York : Peter Lang, 2012 (275-291).
13) « Jean Epstein : The Microscope of Time » in Sarah Keller and Jason Paul (eds) : Jean Epstein: Critical Essays and New Translations. Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press – Coll. « Film Theory in Media History », 2012 (161-177).
11) « Cinema Accross Fault Lines : Bazin and the French School of Geography » in Dudley Andrew and Hervé Joubert-Laurencin (eds) : Opening Bazin. Postwar Film Theory and its Afterlife. Oxford/New York : Oxford University Press, 2010 (13-31).
11) « Le territoire de l’extase : le corps et le paysage dans l’œuvre de Bruno Dumont » in Jérôme Game (ed) : Image des corps/Corps des images au cinéma. Lyon : Ecole normale supérieure (ENS) Editions, 2010 (131-148).
10) « Artaud et le mysticisme chrétien : la question des médiations sensibles » in Olivier Penot-Lacassagne (éd.) ; Actes du colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle, juillet 2003. Caen : Lettres Modernes Minard, 2009 (79-88).
9) « The Spatial Evacuation of Politics: Landscape, Power and the 'Monarch' in Robert Guédiguian's The Last Mitterrand » in James Austin (ed.) : « New Spaces for French and Francophone Cinema », Yale French Studies n°115, May 2009 (67-79).
8) T he French New Wave : Fiftith Anniversary Special Issue, Contemporary French Civilization vol. 32:2, summer 2008 (co-dir. avec Margaret C. Flinn).
7) « François Truffaut en Pygmalion : les arrêts sur image dans Les Quatre Cents Coups et Jules et Jim», The French Review, 2006, vol. 79:6 (1187-1194).
6) « Jean Epstein’s Cinéma du diable : The Ambiguities of Subversion», SubStance, 2005, vol. 34:3 (3-16).
5) « Le vieillissement, la filiation et le paysage dans She Wore a Yellow Ribbon de John Ford », Contre Bande (University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne), n°13, 2005 (45-52).
4) « Rainer Werner Fassbinder : un cinéaste de l'immobilité ? ». Paris : Cinémaction 2004, n° 117 (111-116).
3) « L’Immobilité au cinéma: continuité ou dialectique ? » in Dominique Chateau and Claire Leman (eds), Représentations et modernité. Paris : Publications de la Sorbonne, 2003 (151-166).
2) « La loi au cinéma : le spectateur entre mimesis et catharsis », Contre Bande (University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne), n°10, 2003 (27-44).
1) « L’Arbre de la non-substance : à propos de Charisma de Kiyoshi Kurosawa » in Jean Mottet (ed.), L’Arbre dans le paysage. Seyssel : Champ Vallon, 2002 (137-151).
c) Editor
« The French New Wave : Fiftieth Anniversary Special Issue », Contemporary French Civilization (with Margaret C. Flinn) vol. 32:2 (Summer 2008)
Courses taught at NYU:
Undergraduate :
- History of French Cinema (in English) ; cross-listed with the department of Cinema Studies and the Drama Literature Program.
- Film adaptations of 19th century French novels (co-taught in French with Claudie Bernard)
- Cinema and the 19th Century French Novel (co-taught in French with Claudie Bernard)
- Contemporary French Cinema (in French).
Graduate :
- French Film Theory (in French)
- French Literature and Film (co-taught in French with Eugène Nicole).
- French Cinema from the Revolution of Sound to the pre-“New Wave” Era: 1929-1958 (in English); cross-listed with the Department of Cinema Studies.
- Teaching Film (in French and in English)
- French Cinema and Politics from the 1930s to the present day (in English) ; cross-listed with the department of Cinema Studies.
- Myth and Cinema (in French)
Contact Information
Ludovic Cortade
Associate Professor of French Literature, Thought and Culture ludovic.cortade@nyu.edu 13 University Place, 627 New York, New York (US) 10003Phone: (212) 992-7993