The major critical reappraisal of Sirk began in France with the April 1967 issue of "Cahiers du cinéma", which included an extended interview with Sirk by Serge Daney and Jean-Louis Noames, an appreciation by Jean-Louis Comolli ("The Blind Man and the Mirror or The Impossible Cinema of Douglas Sirk"), and a "biofilmographie" compiled by Patrick Brion and Dominique Rabourdin. Leading American critic Andrew Sarris praised Sirk in his 1968 book "The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929–1968", although Sirk failed to qualify for Sarris' controversial "pantheon" of great directors. From around 1970 there was a burgeoning interest among academic film scholars for Sirk's work - especially his American melodramas. The seminal work in this field was Jon Halliday's book-length interview, "Sirk on Sirk" (1971) which presented Sirk as "... a sophisticated intellectual, a filmmaker who arrived in Hollywood with a very clear vision, leaving behind him an established career in German theatre and film".