Michel Ciment

French film critic (1938–2023)

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Michel Ciment

Ciment in 2010

Born| (1938-05-26)26 May 1938

Paris, France

Died| 13 November 2023(2023-11-13) (aged 85)

Paris, France

Education| Lycée Louis-Le-Grand
Lycée Condorcet
Sorbonne
Amherst College[1]
Occupation(s)| Film critic
Editor

Michel Ciment (French: [simɑ̃]; 26 May 1938 – 13 November 2023) was a French film critic and the editor of the cinema magazine Positif.

Michel Ciment was born in Paris on 26 May 1938.[1][2] He was a Chevalier of the Order of Merit, Knight of the Legion of Honour, Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters, and the president of FIPRESCI. Ciment died in Paris on 13 November 2023, at the age of 85.[3]

Ciment was noted for his love for American film, somewhat unusual in his French cultural environment. He credited his Americophilia to his memories of the liberation of Paris by American soldiers in 1944, when he was a child. Ciment's parents were Alexander and Helene Cziment; they changed their last name after the war. His father was a Hungarian-Jewish tailor and an immigrant to France, putting the family in particular danger during the Nazi occupation.[1]

He wrote books on great film directors, which were based on extensive interviews with their subjects. An anthology of interviews, Film World, was published in English 2009.[1]

## Favorite films[edit]

Ciment participated in the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll, where he listed his ten favorite films as follows: 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Earrings of Madame de..., Fellini's Casanova, Persona, Providence, The Rules of the Game, Salvatore Giuliano, Sansho the Bailiff, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, and Trouble in Paradise.[4]

## Publications[edit]

* Kazan par Kazan (1973)
* Le Dossier Rosi (1976)
* Le Livre de Losey (1979)
* Stanley Kubrick (1980)
* Boorman : un visionnaire en son temps (1985)
* Theo Angelopoulos (1989)
* Le crime à l'écran : Une histoire de l'Amérique, coll. "Découvertes Gallimard" (n° 139), Paris: Gallimard (1992)
* Passeport pour Hollywood : entretiens avec Wilder, Huston, Mankiewicz, Polanski, Forman & Wenders, (1992)
* Fritz Lang : le meurtre et la loi, coll. "Découvertes Gallimard" (n° 442), Paris: Gallimard (2003)
* Petite planète cinématographique (2003)

## Film festival juror[edit]

* 26th Berlin International Film Festival, 1976[5]
* 1978 Cannes Film Festival
* 1990 Locarno International Film Festival

## Honours and distinctions[edit]

* Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur
* Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Mérite
* Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
* Président de la FIPRESCI

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b c d Nossiter, Adam (15 December 2023). "Michel Ciment, Eminent French Film Critic, Is Dead at 85". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
2. ^ New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors
3. ^ Goodfellow, Melanie (13 November 2023). "Michel Ciment Dies: French Film Critic & Historian Was 85". Deadline. Retrieved 13 November 2023.
4. ^ "Michel Ciment | BFI". Archived from the original on 18 August 2016.
5. ^ "Berlinale 1976: Juries". berlinale.de. Retrieved 14 July 2010.

## External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Michel Ciment.

* Michel Ciment at IMDb
* Interviews with Stanley Kubrick
* Interview (in French) about his function as Jury at the Cannes festival 1978
* Interview: Michel Ciment on "Mavericks and Outsiders: 'Positif' Celebrates American Cinema", Glenn Kenny, Notebook
* News brief: "The Michel Ciment Incident," Ali Naderzad, Screen Comment, 2017 Cannes Festival

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