Roger Leenhardt
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Roger Leenhardt (23 July 1903 – 4 December 1985) was a French writer and filmmaker.


Early life

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 A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and ...
with René Zuber, "Les Films du Compas," later known as, "Roger Leenhardt Films.”


Career

As a critic in the journal '' Esprit'', he was considered one of the most perceptive observers of pre-war France and strongly influenced
André Bazin André Bazin (; 18 April 1918 – 11 November 1958) was a renowned and influential French film critic and film theorist. Bazin started to write about film in 1943 and was a co-founder of the renowned film magazine ''Cahiers du cinéma'' in 1951, ...
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 ''l'Ecran 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 co-president with
Robert Bresson Robert Bresson (; 25 September 1901 – 18 December 1999) was a French film director. Known for his ascetic approach, Bresson contributed notably to the art of cinema; his non-professional actors, ellipses, and sparse use of scoring have l ...
and
Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...
. Destined to promote a new cinema d'auteur, 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''(1953–1960). 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 Raymond Roman Thierry Polański , group=lower-alpha, name=note_a ( né Liebling; 18 August 1933) is a French-Polish film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, tw ...
,
Robert Enrico Robert Georgio Enrico (13 April 1931 – 23 February 2001) was a French film director and scriptwriter best known for making the Oscar-winning short ''An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge'' (1961). He was born in Liévin, Pas-de-Calais, in the nort ...
, 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 (e.g.
François Mauriac François Charles Mauriac (, oc, Francés Carles Mauriac; 11 October 1885 – 1 September 1970) was a French novelist, dramatist, critic, poet, and journalist, a member of the'' Académie française'' (from 1933), and laureate of the Nobel Prize ...
,
Paul Valéry Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, mus ...
,
Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
, etc.), and portraits of famous painters (e.g., 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 feature-length fiction films: ' (1948), ' (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.
Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran ...
chose him to be the character "Intelligence" in ''
Une femme mariée Une is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Eastern Province, part of the department of Cundinamarca. The urban centre is located at an altitude of at a distance of from the capital Bogotá. The municipality borders Chipaque in the nor ...
'' (1964) and François Truffaut chose him as the publisher in ''
L'Homme qui aimait les femmes ''The Man Who Loved Women'' (french: L'Homme qui aimait les femmes) is a 1977 French comedy/drama film directed by François Truffaut and starring Charles Denner, Brigitte Fossey and Nelly Borgeaud. In 1983, an American remake of the same name s ...
'' (1977).


Bibliography

*Roger Leenhardt, Les yeux ouverts: entretiens avec
Jean Lacouture Jean Lacouture (9 June 1921 – 16 July 2015) was a journalist, historian and author. He was particularly famous for his biographies. Career Jean Lacouture was born in Bordeaux, France. He began his career in journalism in 1950 in ''Combat'' ...
. Seuil, 1979. *Roger Leenhardt, Chroniques du cinéma.
Cahiers du cinéma ''Cahiers du Cinéma'' (, ) is a French film magazine co-founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca.Itzkoff, Dave (9 February 2009''Cahiers Du Cinéma Will Continue to Publish''The New York TimesMacnab, Ge ...
, 1986. {{DEFAULTSORT:Leenhardt, Roger 1903 births 1985 deaths French film producers