Laurent Le Forestier is professor of film studies at the Université de Lausanne. He is a member of Laboratoire CinéMédias and TECHNÈS. He has worked extensively on early cinema in France and has published several volumes on the topic: Aux sources de l’industrie du cinéma: Le modèle Pathé 1905-1908, (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2006); Louis Feuillade: Retour aux sources, with Alain Carou (Paris: AFRHC/Gaumont, 2007); and La Firme Pathé Frères 1896-1914, co-edited with Michel Marie (Paris: AFRHC, 2004). Most recently, he co-edited with Laurent Guido a special journal issue entitled “Aux sources du burlesque cinématographique: les scènes comiques françaises des premiers temps” (September 2010).

His current research focuses principally on films on art in France in the 1940s and 50s and on the history of film criticism and theory in France after the Second World War, as well as on editing.