Andre Bazin's What Is Cinema? (volumes I and II) have been classics of film studies for as long as they've been available and are considered the gold standard in the field of film criticism. Although Bazin made no films, his name has been one of the most important in French cinema since World War II. He was co-founder of the influential Cahiers du Cinema, which under his leadership became one of the world's most distinguished publications. Championing the films of Jean Renoir (who contributed a short foreword to Volume I), Orson Welles, and Roberto Rossellini, he became the protege of Francois Truffaut, who honors him touchingly in his forword to Volume II. This new edition includes graceful forewords to each volume by Bazin scholar and biographer Dudley Andrew, who reconsiders Bazin and his place in contemporary film study. The essays themselves are erudite but always accessible, intellectual, and stimulating. As Renoir puts it, the essays of Bazin "will survive even if the cinema does not."

安德烈·巴贊（Andre Bazin, 1918～1958），法國《電影手冊》創辦人，二戰後西方最重要的電影批評傢、理論傢，法國新浪潮電影之父。

崔君衍，畢業於北京外國語大學，巴黎大學訪問學者，哈佛大學高級訪問學者，香港城市大學訪問教授。主要著述有《現代電影理論信息》、《電影心理學研究》、《電影符號學》等；主要譯作有《世俗神話》、《電影哲學概說》、《影片美學》；主編有《電影美學與心理學》、《電影藝術詞典》、《現代藝術大辭典》電影分科等。