Famous Biographies

Konstantinos Gavras Born: Kilvia, Greece, 12 February 1933. French director of Greek origin. A graduate of IDHEC (Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques), Costa-Gavras’ first feature Compartiment tueurs / The Sleeping Car Murders (1965), based on Sébastien Japrisot’s popular t Continue reading the biography

Born: Maisons-Lafitte, 5 July 1889. Died: Milly-la-Foret, 11 October 1963. French artist, writer and director. Cocteau’s artistic output was prodigious—poems, plays, opera libretti, essays, drawings, church murals—and the cinema was only one aspect of it. Yet on account of their beauty and Continue reading the biography

Born: Bamako, Mali, 21 April 1940. He began his film career as a projectionist after Mali gained its independence in 1960. In 1963, he received the first of several scholarships to study cinema in the Soviet Union at the State Institute of Cinema (VGIK). After returning home in 1969, he made newsree Continue reading the biography

Born: Paris, France, 11 November 1898. Died: Neuilly, France, 15 March 1981. One of the first auteurs of world cinema, Clair epitomized a certain idea of “Frenchness,” with his light, witty and elegant films which ranged from farce to sentimental comedy. Although Jean Renoir now stands Continue reading the biography

Born: Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, 2 February 1929. Czech director. Verz Chytilová worked as a draftswoman, fashion model and continuity person before studying at FAMU [the Film Faculty of the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts] (1957-62). Her commitment to experiment was already apparent in her studen Continue reading the biography

Born: Beijing, China, 12 August 1952. One of the most prominent and accomplished of the post-Cultural Revolution Chinese directors. Son of Chen Huaikai, also a well-known film director, he was forced at 14 by the Cultural Revolution to interrupt school and work as a rubber plantation, farmer, soldie Continue reading the biography

Born: Alexandria, Egypt, 25 January 1926. The best known and most highly regarded Egyptian filmmaker. The son of a well-to-do lawyer, he was raised as a Christian and educated at Victoria College, an exclusive high school where studies were conducted in English. After a year at Alexandria University Continue reading the biography

Born: Paris, France, 18 August 1909. Died: Clamart, France, 31 October 1996. Carné’s place in film history is assured as the foremost exponent of Poetic Realism, especially in his collaborations with the poet/scriptwriter Jacques Prévert. Carné trained as a photographed and started in film Continue reading the biography

French director, hailed as a prodigy in the 1980s. With his tortured personality, instant success through his first feature, Boy Meets Girl (1984), and regular use of alter ego actor Denis Lavant, Carax has been seen as the carrier of the New Wave inheritance. Boy Meets Girl, shot in black and white Continue reading the biography

Mikhalis Kakogiannis Greek Cypriot film director, also theatre director, editor and producer. After law studies in Britain, Cacoyannis became a producer for the BBC’s wartime Greek-language broadcasts, simultaneously attending drama school and acting on stage. He went to Greece in 1952, where Continue reading the biography