This thesis demonstrates the previously unacknowledged contribution made by early screenwriting teachers to the development of the Hollywood film industry from 1910 to 1922. Through a study of five key screenwriting teachers from the period, it shows the significant role played by such figures in the translation of playwriting theory and theatrical tradition into writing for film. Drawing on an extensive range of primary materials, including manuals and columns written for the fan and trade press, it demonstrates the role played by such teachers in the formation and codification of a set of writing techniques specific to the film medium. In doing so, this thesis fills an important gap in the historiography of screenwriting in Hollywood, giving due credit to a body of work that has previously received only passing consideration, and highlighting the role of early screenwriting teachers, which has previously been understated if not ignored. The thesis also examines some aspects of their legacy in the context of the role and function of contemporary screening gurus.

Le terme de « restauration » n’a pas toujours été en usage dans le domaine du cinéma. Cette thèse de doctorat retrace la généalogie de la notion de restauration et l’histoire des pratiques d’intervention sur les films anciens, depuis les premières campagnes de réhabilitation critique et historiographique dans les années 1920 jusqu’à la généralisation du terme dans les années 1980 autour des quatre-vingt-dix ans du cinéma. Ces pratiques de réparation, de rénovation, de tirage, de sauvegarde, de compilation, de réédition, de sonorisation, de reconstitution, de reconstruction sont partagées entre une quête de l’original et une nécessaire adaptation à un nouveau contexte, culturel et technologique. Locales comme internationales, elles se trouvent au croisement de nombreux discours, institutionnel, politique, critique, et mobilisent différents acteurs, techniciens, archivistes, conservateurs, producteurs, distributeurs, réalisateurs, historiens et bientôt restaurateurs de films. Techniques autant qu’éditoriales, elles sont au cœur de l’histoire du cinéma et de sa matière. Dernière étape du processus de légitimation du septième art, la restauration des films crée des œuvres qui visent à être protégées ainsi que réinterprétées dans leur matérialité pour être présentées devant un nouveau public. / The word “restoration” has not always been applied to film. This Ph.D. traces back the origins of that notion and the evolution of curatorial practices dealing with old films, starting with the first critic and historiographic rehabilitation campaigns in the 1920ies and ending when the word “restoration” is commonly accepted in the 1980ies at the time of the celebration of the ninetieth birthday of cinema. These practices – repairing, renovating, duplicating, preserving, compiling, reediting, creating sound versions, reconstituting, reconstructing – rely on two contradictory urges: a quest for the original, and a necessary adaptation to a new cultural and technological background. Both local and international, these practices stand at the crossing between numerous types of discourses (such as institutional, political, critical discourses) and they are due to different kinds of people (technicians, archivists, curators, producers, distributors, film directors, historians, and in later days film restorers). Technical as well as editorial, these practices are at the heart of film history. Film restoration may be the last step in the legitimizing process of cinema as an art form. It produces works of art that aim to be protected and materially reinterpreted so that they can be presented to a new audience.