Keigel, Léonard

(Léonard Chosidow / March 4, 1929, London, England, UK-)

   Of Russian descent, he is the stepson of Leonid Keigel, who owned a repertory movie theater and later co-founded Les Cahiers du Cinema, and the nephew of Jacques Mage, the proprietor of the ex­ploitation circuit cinema Cinéphone. From 1947 to 1949, he shot amateur Super-16-mm films. After his secondary studies, he earned a diploma in letters and attended aesthetics courses at the Sorbonne. In 1947, he filmed his first 35-mm professional short (Les Déchaînés) and, two years later, founded "Objectif 49", a revolutionary cine-club that gathered such people as Jean Cocteau, André Bazin, Robert Bresson, Roger Leenhardt, Jean-Georges Auriol, Raymond Queneau, Alexandre Astruc, and Jacques Doniol-Valcroze. He was only twenty years old when he became an as­sistant director to René Clément (1950 Le Château de Verre / L'amante di una notte, France / Italy; 1952 Jeux interdits / UK: The Secret Game / USA: Forbidden Games; 1954 Monsieur Ripois / UK: Knave of Hearts / USA: Lovers, Happy Lovers / Lover Boy, France / UK; 1955 Gervaise, France / Italy; 1957 La diga sul Pacifico / The Angry Age, Italy / USA). In 1951, he became co-owner of Les Cahiers du Cinéma. Manager of a production company, Les Films de l'Etoile, in 1953, he directed several shorts, feature-lengths films, and TV movies until 1983. From 1985 to 2000, he shot many commercials. He also published articles in Les Lettres Françaises, Le Quotidien de Paris, and Pariscope.

 Filmography

1947 ◘ Les Déchaînés (short; also screenwriter, dialogist)

1957 ◘ La Vie et l'Oeuvre d'André Malraux (short; also screenwriter)

1958 ◘ La Paysanne pervertie (short; also screenwriter, dialogist)

1960 ◘ Le Jazz à Paris (short; also screenwriter)

        ◘ Duke Ellington à Paris (short; also screenwriter)

1962 ◘ Léviathan / USA: Dark Journey (also co-screenwriter)

1965 ◘ La Dame de Pique

1970 ◘ Qui? / Il cadavere dagli artigli d'acciaio / UK and USA: The Sensuous Assassin (also screenwriter, adapter; France / Italy)

1977 ◘ Une Femme un Jour . . . (also adapter, execu­tive producer, choreographer, actor; shot in 1974-1975)

 Television Filmography

1964 ◘ L'Abandon

1968 ◘ Les Atomistes (26 x 13')

1983 ◘ Vichy Dancing