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

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

) 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), better known as Fritz Lang (), was an Austrian-born film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety Obituari ...

and

Nicholas Ray Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle Jr., August 7, 1911 – June 16, 1979) was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. Described by the Harvard Film Archive as "Hollywood's last romantic" and "one of postwar American cinem ...

, as well as

Chris Marker Chris Marker (; 29 July 1921 – 29 July 2012) (born ''Christian-François Bouche-Villeneuve'') was a French writer, photographer, documentary film director, multimedia artist and Essay#Film, film essayist. His best known films are ''La Jetée' ...

and

Robert Kramer Robert Kramer (June 22, 1939 – November 10, 1999) was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor who directed 19 films between 1965 and 1999, most of them political cinema made from a left-wing point of view. Born in New York and e ...

. 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 is regarded as one of cinema's most influential filmmakers for his work in the silent era. An e ...

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; a ...

, German cinema and the history of the

Cinémathèque française A cinematheque is an archive of films and film-related objects with an exhibition venue. Similarly to a book library (bibliothèque in French), a cinematheque is responsible for preserving and making available to the public film heritage. Typically ...

, 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 Emi ...

'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 sho ...

'' 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 fo ...

's Out 1, The Mother and the Whore by

Jean Eustache Jean Eustache (; 30 November 1938 – 5 November 1981) was a French film director and editor. 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 ...

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

Otar Iosseliani Otar Iosseliani ( ka, ოთარ იოსელიანი ''otar ioseliani''; 2 February 1934 – 17 December 2023) was a Georgian film director, known for movies such as '' Falling Leaves'', '' Pastorale'' and '' Favorites of the Moon''. I ...

Wim Wenders Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders (; born 14 August 1945) is a German filmmaker and photographer, who is a major figure in New German Cinema. Among the honors he has received are prizes from the Cannes Film Festival, Cannes, Venice International Film ...

Amos Gitaï Amos Gitai () is an artist and an Israeli filmmaker, born 11 October 1950 in Haifa, Israel. Gitai's work was presented in several major retrospectives in Pompidou Center in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Lincoln Center in New York, ...

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

Il Cinema Ritrovato ''Il Cinema Ritrovato'' () is an annual film festival organised every summer by Cineteca di Bologna in Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consist ...

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 In 2012 Eisenschitz received the Reinhold Schünzel Award at the ''cinefest – Internationales Festival des deutschen Film-Erbes'' in Hamburg.

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

(Source) * 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 *

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