Michel Ciment

Movies

Jerry Schatzberg, Portrait Paysage
The photographic world of Jerry Schatzberg.
An American Named Kazan
Self
Elia Kazan represented the American dream. An immigrant who came without anything and who became the Prince of Hollywood and Broadway after World War II. Actor, theater director, filmmaker, writer, he is the founder of Actor’s Studio, a collaborator of Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams, and a director who discovered Marlon Brando and James Dean.
About The Salesman
The Salesman is Asghar Farhadi's seventh film that won two trophies for the Best Actor and Best Screenplay at Cannes Film Festival in 2016 and the academy award for the best Foreign Language Film in 2017. About The Salesman is a documentary about Farhadi's method of filmmaking: development, pre-production, production, and post-production, with interviews with Asghar Farhadi and the analysis of the renowned Iranian and international film critics about The Salesman and Farhadi's cinema.
Passion and Reason: Michel Ciment on 'Barry Lyndon'
Self
French critic and of editor of the film magazine Positif Michel Ciment discusses Stanley Kubrick's films from the 1950s and the evolution of his directing style.
John Boorman par John Boorman : une leçon de cinéma
Self - Host
O Homem que Matou John Wayne
Self
M présenté par Michel Ciment
Michel Ciment talks about Losey’s M.
Michel Ciment: The Art of Sharing Movies
Michel Ciment
Director Simoné Laine delves into Ciment’s influential life, including his history with film periodical Positif (and its infamous rivalry with Cahiers du cinéma).
Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff
Self (archive footage)
In 2001 Jack Cardiff (1914-2009) became the first director of photography in the history of the Academy Awards to win an Honorary Oscar. But the first time he clasped the famous statuette in his hand was a half-century earlier when his Technicolor camerawork was awarded for Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus. Beyond John Huston's The African Queen and King Vidor's War and Peace, the films of the British-Hungarian creative duo (The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death too) guaranteed immortality for the renowned cameraman whose career spanned seventy years.
Joseph Losey and the Criminal
A documentary presented by French film critic Michel Ciment, including an interview with Losey's wife Patricia. Covers much of Losey's career with the particular focus on The Criminal.
Crítico
Self
Seventy critics and filmmakers discuss cinema around the conflict between the artist and the observer, the creator and the critic. Between 1998 and 2007, Kléber Mendonça Filho recorded testimonies about this relationship in Brazil, the United States and Europe, based on his experience as a critic.
Abbas Kiarostami: The Art of Living
Self
Through an interview with Kiarostami in the Aran Islands and interviews with film critics and scholars at Cannes, the director examines Kiarostami's themes and methods. The director also profiles Kiarostami as a poet and a photographer.
Stanley and Us
Self
Three hapless directors arrive in England from Italy to make a documentary on their idol. The funny thing is, they have no interviews lined up! Not to worry, these guys have a miracle or two that they call in.
Success Is the Best Revenge
Writer
Alex Rodak (Michael York) is a Polish director in exile in London with his family, which includes an older teenage son Adam (Michael Lyndon) who is struggling with an identity crisis, his wife (Joanna Szerzerbic), and another son. Rodak is in the throes of putting together a major show about Poland and the politics of exile at a West End theater. His single-minded determination to succeed causes him to take advantage of others, and because of his need for backing, he turns to a low-life businessman (John Hurt) to bail him out. His wife is anything but happy about his behavior and dislikes this last decision even more. This is an interesting study of how a father and son become alienated in a conflict between cultural identity and its exploitation.
All About Mankiewicz
Self
Joseph L. Mankiewicz discusses his career in a feature-length interview recorded at his New England home and the 1983 Berlin Film Festival.
Elia Kazan: An Outsider
Self - Host
Hour long documentary on the legendary director.
Portrait d'un homme 'à 60% parfait': Billy Wilder
Director
French film critic Michel Ciment interviews Billy Wilder about his life and filmmaking.
Portrait d'un homme 'à 60% parfait': Billy Wilder
Self / Interviewer
French film critic Michel Ciment interviews Billy Wilder about his life and filmmaking.
Yasujiro Ozu and the Taste of Sake
Self
A 1978 episode of the French television program Ciné regards, featuring critics Michel Ciment and Georges Perec, that looks back on Ozu’s career