An understanding of the education, professional experiences, and cultural activities that have influenced Raymond Bellour's intellectual formation helps to explain the breadth of his research interests, as well as many of the distinctive dimensions of his film theory. What follows is designed to give a brief outline of the intellectual and cultural factors that shaped his preoccupations, the range of his interests, and the course of his career.

EARLY LIFE AND SCHOOLING

A native of Lyon, Raymond Bellour was born in that city on January 18, 1939, where he would remain until 1964, before relocating to Paris. A precocious child, Bellour began to read voraciously at a very young age, having read Racine and Homer by the age of ten, and having devoured the whole of Shakespeare by the age of fourteen. This passion for literature would persist through the whole of his career, leading him not only into literary scholarship as a parallel interest alongside his research into cinema, but also to become a creative writer in his own right.

High school was not a particularly gratifying experience for Bellour, who confesses that during this time he felt very restless, finding it difficult to remain cooped up in a classroom all day. Consequently, instead of undertaking the hypokhâgne (the preparatory class for advanced studies in arts and literature in the École normale supérieure), as would usually be expected of a youth with his precocity, he wanted to go on the stage, persuading his parents to allow him to enter the Conservatoire de Lyon at the end of high school with the intention of becoming an actor.

THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE

For the next five years, Bellour pursued theatrical activities, first at the Conservatoire, and then with the playwright and director Roger Planchon, who, in 1952, had founded the Théâtre de la Comédie on the rue des Marronniers, in Lyon. As a member of this company he acted in several productions directed by Planchon of plays by Molière, including Les Fourberies de Scapin and Le Médecin malgré lui, in which he played opposite the acclaimed French actress Catherine Rouvel. During this time, Bellour also served as assistant to the director.