Roger Leenhardt

Roger Leenhardt 23 July 1903 4 December 1985 was a French writer and filmmaker Born in a bourgeois Protestant family this brilliant student of philosophy was very soon fascinated by cinema Through a cousin he started working for the newsreel program Éclair Journal and in 1934 set up his own production company with René Zuber Les Films du Compas later known as Roger Leenhardt Films As a critic in the journal Esprit he was considered one of the most perceptive observers of prewar France and strongly influenced André Bazin and the entire Nouvelle Vague Thanks to his series of articles known as La petite école du spectateur cinema became considered as an art and a language in its own right Leenhardt also contributed to other journals such as Fontaine Les Lettres Françaises and lEcran français in which in 1948 he delivered his famous cry Down with Ford Long Live Wyler In 1949 he fostered the creation of the cinema club Objectif 49 of which he was the copresident with Robert Bresson and Jean Cocteau Destined to promote a new cinema dauteur the club resulted in the creation in Biarritz of the Festival of Cursed Films Festival des Films Maudits Beginning in the 1950s he presided over the French Association for the Promotion of Cinema Association française pour la diffusion du cinéma which organized a traveling festival Cinéma Days Les Journées du cinéma 19531960 Finally in 1955 Leenhardt participated in the creation in Tours of the International Days of Film Journées internationales du film which became the Festival of Tours Specialized in short films the festival brought together the foremost filmmakers including François Truffaut Chris Marker Agnès Varda Jacques Demy Roman Polanski Robert Enrico and others His documentary works are numerous and include the creation of more than 60 short films and the production of a similar number There are two main categories of his work Portraits of great writers eg François Mauriac Paul Valéry Victor Hugo etc and portraits of famous painters eg Monet Pissarro Bazile etc He also made a film on the origins of photography Daguerre ou la Naissance de la photographie 1964 and another on the invention of cinema Naissance du cinéma 1946 a masterpiece of pedagogical and intelligence Privileging his artist vision Leenhardt made only three featurelength fiction films Les Dernières Vacances fr 1948 Le Rendezvous de minuit fr 1961 and for television Une fille dans la montagne 1964 Moreover Roger Leenhardt appeared in three films as an actor In Les Dernières vacances he is the teacher JeanLuc Godard chose him to be the character Intelligence in Une femme mariée 1964 and François Truffaut chose him as the publisher in LHomme qui aimait les femmes 1977