Bernard Eisenschitz

Don Juan (2022)

Jilted on his wedding day, Laurent, a stage actor playing the role of the famous seducer Don Juan, cannot help but see his ex-fiancée in every women he meets. In an attempt to mend his broken heart and ego, he tries to seduce them all but none are recepti ...

A Life for Movies: Lotte Eisner (2021)

Born in Berlin in 1896, Lotte Eisner became famous for her passionate involvement in the world of both German and French cinema. In 1936, together with Henri Langlois, she founded the Cinémathèque Française with the goal of saving from destruction films ...

Winter Shooting: L'Atalante - Rushes and Outtakes (2017)

Perhaps it speaks to the sheer power and beauty of L'Atalante that 40 years after its initial butchered release, critics and fans still seek to piece together Vigo's vision – and debate the choices involved in that process. Bernard Eisenschitz, who was i ...

Chris Marker: Never Explain, Never Complain (2015)

Posthumous portrait of Chris Marker, the elusive French filmmaker- essayist, traveller, photographer and cat-lover. Two filmmakers, Jean-Marie Barbe and Arnaud Lambert, propose a chronological journey through his thoughts and cinematographic work: from the ...

Two Rémi, Two (2015)

Thirty years old, a nothing job, a timid love affair: Rémi is a little at sea in his life. Until the day when he must share it with his double, another him, invasive and not so nice. Which one will be the true Rémi? ...

La photo (2014)

Five, even six, variations on a theme, commentary and interpretation of the same photograph. An exercise to tell and summarize the history of the Cinémathèque française. ...

À voir absolument: 1963-1973 Dix années aux Cahiers du Cinéma (2011)

Jean-Louis Comolli and Jean Narboni, former editors at Cahiers du Cinema, interview their former colleagues and fellow travellers during the "Red Years" of the journal between 1968 and1973. ...

The Idiot (2008)

Nastassia Philippovna finds herself juggling the affections of four men over the course of a single evening. One is her benefactor, the bourgeois Totsky. Another is the opportunistic Ganya, whom Totsky has promised 75,000 rubles if he will marry Nastassia. ...

Death's Glamour (2007)

Whilst seeking out locations in the South of France for his next film, director Luc Moullet comes across a male corpse. He immediately decides to use this to his advantage. By swapping his passport with that of the dead man, Moullet hopes that the world wi ...

The Lubitsch Touch (2004)

An interview with film Critic Bernard Eisenschitz discussing the progression of Ernst Lubitsch's career, from the director's beginning in German silents through CLUNY BROWN, the last film he saw to completion. ...

Alfred Hitchcock: The Early Years (2004)

Written and directed by Hitchcock historian Noël Simsolo, this 2004 French television documentary explores the earliest years of Alfred Hitchcock's film career, beginning with his success in the production of The Lodger (1926) and following the filmmaker ...

Les voyages de L'Atalante (2001)

JLG/JLG: Self-Portrait in December (1995)

Director Jean-Luc Godard reflects in this movie about his place in film history, the interaction of film industry and film as art, as well as the act of creating art. ...

The Children Play Russian (1993)

A famous French filmmaker is hired by a major Hollywood producer to make a documentary on the state of post-Cold War Russia. The filmmaker, though, subverts the project by stubbornly remaining in France and casting himself as the title character of Dostoye ...

The Persistence of Vision (1993)

Blank's TV documentary on Straub-Huillet. ...

Golem, the Spirit of Exile (1992)

An allegory of the Golem, a Jewish mythical creature personifying displacement and exile, this film tells the story of a woman (similar to the biblical Ruth) and her sisters, who are forced into exile after the death of their husbands. It is set in 1990s P ...

Out 1 (1990)

While two theater groups rehearse plays by Aeschylus, two solitary individuals wander the Parisian streets hustling the populace for cash. ...

Berlin-Jerusalem (1989)

Two interconnected stories in the 1930s, one set in Berlin, the other in Palestine: Mania Vilbouchevich Shohat (1880-1961), called Tania, a Russian Jew and revolutionary, goes from Minsk to Palestine to live on a collective. She promotes feminism and lamen ...

Wings of Desire (1987)

Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the ang ...

Favourites of the Moon (1985)

A porcelain table service and a painting from the 19th century pass from hand to hand and deteriorate over time, sealing the fate of different characters who cross paths in Paris. ...

The Mother and the Whore (1973)

Aimless young Alexandre juggles his relationships with his girlfriend, Marie, and a casual lover named Veronika. Marie becomes increasingly jealous of Alexandre's fling with Veronika and as the trio continues their unsustainable affair, the emotional stake ...

Jean Renoir : Partie de campagne (1969)

Winter Shooting: L'Atalante - Rushes and Outtakes (2017)

Perhaps it speaks to the sheer power and beauty of L'Atalante that 40 years after its initial butchered release, critics and fans still seek to piece together Vigo's vision – and debate the choices involved in that process. Bernard Eisenschitz, who was i ...

Young Devils in School: Zéro de Conduite — Rushes, Sound, and Images (2017)

While reconstruction of L'Atalante as a major feature has captured critical attention and debate, we also know that in 1933 even contemporary audiences, critics and politicians grasped the dangerous messages of Vigo's mini-epic of school rebellion and took ...

Debra Paget, For Example (2016)

A video essay where the author presumes motivations and insights in a fictionalized biography regarding Debra Paget, a contract player for 20th-Century Fox whom they groomed and coached for stardom. ...

Chaplin Today: Monsieur Verdoux (2003)

A short documentary in the Chaplin Today series about Chaplin's "Monsieur Verdoux." Includes an interview with Claude Chabrol, whose 1963 film "Landru" concerns the same serial killer that inspired Chaplin's film. ...

Les voyages de L'Atalante (2001)

Wings of Desire (1987)

Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the ang ...

What Do Those Old Films Mean? (1985)

Noel Burch's fascinating and well-made (if at times historically contestable) six-part BBC television series, about early silent cinema in Denmark, England, the Soviet Union, France, Germany, and the U.S., mixes beautiful clips of rare films with various s ...

Actualités – sept ou huit scènes de mai 68 (1974)

A film by Bernard Eisenschitz. ...

Un troisième (1970)

Shots of a sequence of a shooting: young girl who must shed tears. ...

Jean Renoir : Partie de campagne (1969)

Retour d'Henri Langlois à Paris (1968)

Wednesday July 31, 1968, almost six months after the start of the "Langlois affair" which saw the government attempt to oust the founder of the Cinémathèque française, triggering massive support from the biggest names in world cinema, Henri Langlois fin ...