Biography

Jean-Michel Frodon (born 20 September 1953 in Paris) is a journalist, critic and historian of cinema. Born Jean-Michel Billard, he writes with a pseudonym borrowed from Frodo of The Lord of the Rings. He has a master's degree and a DEA in history. He worked as an educator from 1971 to 1981. Next, he was a photographer from 1981 to 1985. In 1983, he became a journalist and film critic for the weekly periodical Le Point, of which his father, Pierre Billard, also a journalist and a film critic, was one of the founders and chief editors. He held this post until 1990.

He took over the same functions at the daily newspaper Le Monde in 1990 and in 1995, he became responsible for the daily film column. In 2003 he became head editor of Cahiers du cinémas four years after its purchase by Le Monde. After leaving in 2009, he writes the blog Projection publique on website slate.fr.

He has written, at times, for numerous other journals of cinema. In 2001 he founded L'Exception, the think tank about cinema. He has taught at Pantheon-Sorbonne University and École Normale Supérieure, and currently teaches at Sciences Po Paris.