| Pierre Lherminier | |
| Birth Name: | Pierre Thévenet |
| Birth Date: | 2 January 1931 |
| Birth Place: | Oullins, France |
| Nationality: | French |
| Occupation: | Historian |
Pierre Thévenet, known as Pierre Lherminier, (2 January 1931 – 25 January 2021) was a French cinematic historian and writer.
Lherminier was the brother of film producer René Thévenet. He began working in cinema with his contributions to a French film encyclopedia. He became well-known when he became director of the "Cinéma d'aujourd'hui" collection, published by .[1] He published "biofilms" about great French directors.[2] It was released on 22 March 1962 and was commended by Le Film français.[3] Jean Collet's segment on Jean-Luc Godard sold over 500,000 copies.
In 1968, he entered a film competition with the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques, but it was cancelled due to the events of May 68. In 1970, he left Seghers and joined . Five years later, he became an independent publisher and reprised "Cinéma d'aujourd'hui" and created several other collections. When "Cinéma d'aujourd'hui" was re-released in 1979, it was once again hailed by critics in the Revue du cinéma.[4] He stopped self-publishing in 1988 and joined upper management at Éditions des Quatre-Vents.[5] He would sign several books and assist in the publishing of books by Jean Vigo and Louis Delluc.[6] In 2012, he published the first volume of Annales du cinéma français.[7] [8] [9] Critic called it a "modest and ambitious" project which constitutes a "sum of intelligent erudition",[10] and Laurent Aknin called it a "work of reference for all to order first".[11] He became Editor-in-Chief of Présence du cinéma français and created the bookstore Contacts in 1955, which closed its doors in 2013.[12]
In 1973, Lherminier founded the Comité de liaison de l'édition cinématographique, which organized a cinematic book fair in 1985, an event subsequently adopted by Cinémathique Française. He deposited his archives at the Institute for Contemporary Publishing Archives in 1996.[13]
Pierre Lherminier died on 25 January 2021 at the age of 90.[14]