Why do I need to know septième art?

Because you might hear this reference when a great French actor makes the news.

What does it mean?

Septième art – roughly pronounced seht-ee-ehm arr – translates as the ‘seventh art’. In France, this is a way of referring to cinema and film. 

As such, you might hear people discussing the ‘seventh art’ during a film award show, such as the Césars or the Cannes film festival. It may also come up when a renowned actor has made headlines – usually expressed in print as ‘le 7e art’.

The French have a strong love for le septième art, the country of the Lumière brothers and the French New Wave.

Philosophers have been trying to classify different forms of art for hundreds of years, but Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s 19th century ranking seems to have stuck around, particularly in France.

Hegel initially categorised the five major art forms as architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and poetry. 

Later on, others added to the ranking to include art forms that were popularised in the 20th century such as cinema, radio and television while la bande dessinée (graphic novels and comic books) were added in ninth place.

France’s ministry of culture has also got involved with classifying art forms, and in 2006 they officially recognised video games as the dixième art, or tenth art.

The arts are now classified as;

1 architecture

2 sculpture

3 painting

4 music

5 poetry

6 performing arts (dance and theatre)

7 cinema

8 radio and TV

9 graphic novels

10 video games

However, these classifications are often strongly debated amongst art historians and they primarily hold symbolic value, or as a way to refer to the art form without using its formal name.

Use it like this

L’acteur légendaire est l’un des grands noms de l’histoire du septième art. – The legendary actor is one of the great names in the history of cinema.

Des passionnés du septième art se sont réunis pour le festival du film. – Fans of the cinema gathered together for the film festival.