Bernard Eisenschitz (born 3 July 1944 in Saint-Calais,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

) is a French film critic, subtitler and historian. He has also directed, produced and restored films.

Achievements

Eisenschitz modelled himself on the film historian Georges Sadoul, the definitive edition of whose masterwork, the ''Histoire générale du cinéma'', he edited. Eisenschitz is an internationally known expert on

Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...

and

Nicholas Ray Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle Jr., August 7, 1911 – June 16, 1979) was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor best known for the 1955 film '' Rebel Without a Cause.'' He is appreciated for many narrative features p ...

, as well as Chris Marker and

Robert Kramer Robert Kramer (June 22, 1939 – November 10, 1999), born in New York and educated at Swarthmore College and Stanford University, was an American film director, screenwriter and actor who directed 19 films between 1965 and 1999, most of them ...

. He has worked and published on

Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe; December 28, 1888March 11, 1931) was a German film director, producer and screenwriter. He was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at th ...

Ernst Lubitsch Ernst Lubitsch (; January 29, 1892November 30, 1947) was a German-born American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as ...

, German cinema and the history of the

Cinémathèque française The Cinémathèque Française (), founded in 1936, is a French non-profit film organization that holds one of the largest archives of film documents and film-related objects in the world. Based in Paris's 12th arrondissement, the archive offers ...

, among other topics. Eisenschitz wrote for '' Cahiers du cinéma'' between about 1967 and 1972, and for '' La nouvelle critique'' from 1970 to 1977. In 2001, he founded the periodical ''Cinéma''. In the same year, he completed the definitive restoration of

Jean Vigo Jean Vigo (; 26 April 1905 – 5 October 1934) was a French film director who helped establish poetic realism in film in the 1930s. His work influenced French New Wave cinema of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Biography Vigo was born to ...

's film ''

L'Atalante ''L'Atalante'', also released as ''Le Chaland qui passe'' ("The Passing Barge"), is a 1934 French film written and directed by Jean Vigo, and starring Jean Dasté, Dita Parlo and Michel Simon. After the difficult release of his controversial ...

'' and made a documentary on the film's different restorations entitled ''Les Voyages de L'Atalante''. He has on occasion appeared as an actor in films for director-friends of his, for example in

Jacques Rivette Jacques Rivette (; 1 March 1928 – 29 January 2016) was a French film director and film critic most commonly associated with the French New Wave and the film magazine '' Cahiers du Cinéma''. He made twenty-nine films, including '' L'amour f ...

Out 1 ''Out 1'', also referred to as ''Out 1: Noli Me Tangere'', is a 1971 French film directed by Jacques Rivette and Suzanne Schiffman. It is indebted to Honoré de Balzac's ''La Comédie humaine'', particularly the ''History of the Thirteen'' colle ...

The Mother and the Whore ''The Mother and the Whore'' (french: La maman et la putain) is a 1973 French film directed by Jean Eustache and starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, Bernadette Lafont and Françoise Lebrun. An examination of the relationships between three characters ...

Jean Eustache Jean Eustache (; 30 November 1938 – 5 November 1981) was a French filmmaker. During his short career, he completed numerous short films, in addition to a pair of highly regarded features, of which the first, ''The Mother and the Whore'', is c ...

, Le Prestige de la mort by Luc Moullet, and in films by

Otar Iosseliani Otar Iosseliani ( ka, ოთარ იოსელიანი, born 2 February 1934) is a Georgian-born film director. He was born in the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi, where he studied at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire and graduated in 1952 ...

, Wim Wenders et

Amos Gitaï Amos Gitai ( he, עמוס גיתאי; born 11 October 1950) is an Israelis, Israeli filmmaker, who was trained as an architect. Gitai's work was presented in several major retrospectives in Pompidou Center in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art (M ...

. He is a regular speaker at film screenings and festivals including the archival festival

Il Cinema Ritrovato Il Cinema Ritrovato (meaning "cinema rediscovered") is a festival dedicated to the history of cinema, screening classics, retrospectives and showcasing the latest restored films from labs and archives around the world. The majority of the films sh ...

in Bologna. The film critic

Jacques Mandelbaum Jacques Mandelbaum (born 1 May 1958, in Neuilly-sur-Seine) is a French journalist and film critic, currently working for the newspaper ''Le Monde'' which he joined in 1995. He is the author of numerous works on the cinema including a biographical ...

has said of Eisenschitz that "Traducteur, historien du cinéma, programmateur, réalisateur et acteur à l'occasion, Eisenschitz est l'une de ces figures secrètes de la cinéphilie dont l'érudition et la finesse de touche se rendent toujours disponibles à qui les sollicite" ranslator, film historian, programmer, director and occasional actor, Eisenschitz is one of those secret cinephiliac figures whose erudition and subtlety are always at the disposal of those who ask

Filmography

* 1968 : ''Pick up'' (short) * 1974 : ''Printemps 58'' (short) * 2001 : ''Les Messages de Fritz Lang'' (short) * 2003 : ''Chaplin Today : Monsieur Verdoux'' (TV documentary) *2017: ''Tournage d’hiver: L’Atalante de Jean Vigo chutes et rushes''

As actor

* 1971: ''Out 1 (Jacques Rivette)'' * 1973: ''La maman et la putain'' (Jean Eustache) * 1985: ''Les Favoris de la lune'' (Otar Iosseliani) * 1993: ''Les Enfants jouent à la Russie'' (Jean-Luc Godard) * 2006: ''Le prestige de la mort'' (Luc Moullet) * 2008 : ''L'Idiot'' (Pierre Léon) * 2010: ''Chantrapas'' (Otar Iosseliani) * 2013 : ''Biette'' (Pierre Léon) * 2016 : ''Deux Rémi, Deux'', adapted from the novel by Fiodor Dostoïevski, selected for Locarno International Film Festival, 2015

Publications

* ''Humphrey Bogart'', Paris, Eric Losfeld, Le Terrain vague, 1967 * ''Ernst Lubitsch'', Anthologie du cinéma, 1969 * ''Douglas Fairbanks'', Anthologie du cinéma, 1969 * ''Le Cinéma allemand aujourd’hui'', Paris, Documents, 1976; Paris, Nathan, coll. Cinéma 128, 1999 * ''Les restaurations de la Cinémathèque française,'' 1986 * ''Roman américain, les vies de Nicholas Ray'', Christian Bourgois, 1990 * ''Man Hunt de Fritz Lang'', Crisnée, Yellow Now, 1992 * ''Frank Tashlin'' (1994) (co-edited with Roger Garcia) * Chris Marker, Festival de Pesaro, Dino Audino Editore, Rome, 1996 * ''Le Cinema allemand, 1999'' * ''Gels et Dégels, Une autre histoire du cinéma soviétique'', ''1926-1968,'' 2000 * ''Points de départ : entretien avec Robert Kramer,'' 2001 * ''Fritz Lang au travail'', Éditions Cahiers du cinéma, 2011

Notes

↑ « Fritz Lang était un des héros de ma famille, originaire, comme lui, d'Autriche et d'Allemagne. » Eisenschitz sur leMonde.fr↑ Willy et Bernard Eisenschitz↑ Bernard Eisenschitz sur Le Monde

References

External links

*
Bernard Eisenschitz page on France Culture (in French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eisenscitz, Bernard 1944 births Living people French film critics 20th-century French historians Subtitlers