- 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.Filmography1947 ◘ 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 Pique1970 ◘ 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 Filmography1964 ◘ L'Abandon1968 ◘ Les Atomistes (26 x 13')1983 ◘ Vichy Dancing
Encyclopedia of French film directors . Philippe Rège. 2011.