Jean Rouch
Born: 1917-05-31 in Paris, France
Died: 2004-02-18
Known For: Directing
Biography
Jean Rouch (French: [ʁuʃ]; 31 May 1917, Paris – 18 February 2004, Niger) was a French filmmaker and anthropologist. He is considered to be one of the founders of cinéma-vérité in France, which shared the aesthetics of the direct cinema. Rouch's practice as a filmmaker for over sixty years in Africa, was characterized by the idea of shared anthropology. Influenced by his discovery of surrealism in his early twenties, many of his films blur the line between fiction and documentary, creating a new style of ethnofiction. He was also hailed by the French New Wave as one of theirs. His seminal film Me a Black (Moi, un noir) pioneered the technique of jump cut popularized by Jean-Luc Godard. Godard said of Rouch in the Cahiers du Cinéma (Notebooks on Cinema) n°94 April 1959, "In charge of research for the Musée de l'Homme (French, "Museum of Man") Is there a better definition for a filmmaker?" Along his career, Rouch was no stranger to controversy.
Filmography
2025
- Outlaw as Self
2013
- My Conversations on Film as Himself
2012
- Mad Mimes ... (Property Builder)
- Freddy Buache, le cinéma as Self (archive footage)
- Maya Deren, Take Zero as Himself
2011
- Jean Epstein, Young Oceans of Cinema as Self (archive footage)
2010
- The Dreamed Films as Self
2004
- Portrait de Jean Rouch as Self
- Jean Rouch, des mensonges plus vrais que la réalité as Lui-même
2002
- Mon père c'est un lion - Jean Rouch pour mémoire as Self
- Le Rêve plus fort que la mort ... (Director)
2000
1999
1998
1997
- I'm Tired of Standing, I Lie Down ... (Director)
- A Friendly Handshake
- Announcement ... (Director)
1996
- Germaine et ses copains ... (Director)
1995
- Son of Gascogne as Self
- Rouch in Reverse as himself
1994
- Germaine chez elle as himself
1993
- Madame l'eau ... (Director)
1992
- Cinéma! Cinéma! The French New Wave as Self
- Letter to Jean Rouch as Self
- Damouré Speaks About AIDS ... (Director)
- An Egg with No Shell
1991
- Jean Rouch: First Film 1947-1991 as Himself
1990
- Brise-glace ... (Director)
- Liberté, égalité, fraternité, et puis après... ... (Director)
1989
- Boulevards d'Afrique ... (Director)
1987
- Brise-glace : Bateau givre ... (Editor)
- Cousin, cousine ... (Director)
- Couleur du temps. Berlin, Août 1945 ... (Director)
1986
- The Ordinary Madness of a Daughter of Ham ... (Director)
- Enigma ... (Director)
- Ciné-Portrait de Bill Witney ... (Director)
1984
- Hampâté Bâ ... (Director)
- Dionysos ... (Director)
1983
- Ciné-Portrait of Raymond Depardon as himself
1981
- Sigui Synthesis: The Invention of Speech and Death ... (Director)
1980
1979
- Funeral at Bongo: The Death of Old Anai ... (Director)
1978
- Margaret Mead: A Portrait By a Friend ... (Director)
- Cinématon as N°1256
- Ciné-Portrait de Stanislas Adotevi ... (Director)
1977
- Makwayela ... (Director)
- Samba the Great as Narrator
- Hommage à Marcel Mauss. Germaine Dieterlen ... (Director)
- Ispahan: A Persian Letter (The Chah Mosque at Ispahan) as Lui-même
- Badye, the Storyteller ... (Director)
1976
- Babatou, Three Pieces of Advice ... (Director)
1975
- Zomo et ses frères ... (Director)
1974
- Pam Kuso Kar (Breaking Pam's Vases) ... (Director)
- Cock-A-Doodle-Doo! Mr Chicken ... (Director)
- The Dama of Ambara: To Enchant Death ... (Director)
1973
- The Year 01 ... (Co-Director)
- VW-Voyou ... (Director)
- Funeral Rites for Women in Bongo ... (Director)
- The Burial of the Hogon ... (Director)
- Giraffe Football or “The Alternative” ... (Director)
- Hommage à Marcel Mauss : Taro Okamoto ... (Director)
- Boukoki ... (Director)
- Sigui 1973: The Canopy of Circumcision ... (Director)
1972
- Horendi ... (Director)
- Sigui 1972: The Loincloths of Yamé ... (Director)
- Un lion nommé l'Américain ... (Director)
1971
- Samedi soir as Self
- Drums from the Past ... (Cinematography)
- Sigui 1971: The Dune of Idyeli ... (Director)
1970
- Little by Little ... (Director)
- Sigui 1970: The Clamours of Amani ... (Director)
- Architects of Ayorou ... (Director)
- Mya - la mère ... (Director)
1969
- Sigui 1969: The Cave of Bongo ... (Director)
1968
- Yenendi de Ganghel (Rain Dance at Ganghel) ... (Director)
- Ayorou Singing Stones ... (Director)
- Sigui 1968: The Dancers of Tyogou ... (Director)
1967
- Jaguar ... (Director)
- Civilisation: L'homme et les images as Self
- Sigui 1967: L'enclume de Yougo ... (Director)
- Daouda Sorko ... (Director)
1966
- The Goumbé of the Young Revelers ... (Writer)
- The Lion Hunters ... (Director)
- World Without a Game as Self
- Dogon Drums, Elements of a Study in Rhythm ... (Director)
1965
- Six in Paris ... (Director)
- Gare du Nord ... (Director)
1964
- That Tender Age ... (Director)
- La Nouvelle Vague par elle-même as Self
- The Fifteen-Year-Old Widows ... (Director)
- L'Afrique et la recherche scientifique ... (Director)
1963
- The Lovely Month of May as Self (uncredited)
- Le palmier à l'huile ... (Director)
- Rose et Landry ... (Director)
- Monsieur Albert, prophète ... (Director)
- Les cocotiers ... (Director)
1962
- Niger Festivals: December 1961 - Niger Independence Days ... (Director)
- Hampi ... (Director)
- The Doll as Officer (uncredited)
- Les pêcheurs du Niger ... (Director)
- The Punishment ... (Screenplay)
- Urbanisme africain ... (Director)
- Abidjan, port de pêche ... (Director)
- Le mil ... (Director)
1961
- Chronicle of a Summer as Self
- The Human Pyramid ... (Director)
1960
- Funérailles au Ghana ... (Director)
1959
- I, a Negro ... (Director)
- The Sons of the Water
1958
- Une sortie de novices de Sakpata ... (Director)
- Moro Naba ... (Director)
- La royale goumbé ... (Director)
1957
- Baby Ghana ... (Director)
1955
- The Mad Masters as Narrator
1953
- Mammy Water ... (Director)
1951
- Les gens du mil ... (Director)
- Cemeteries in the Cliff ... (Director)
- The Rainmakers ... (Director)
1950
- Battle on the Great River ... (Director)
1949
- Circumcision ... (Director)
1948
- Initiation into the Dance of the Possessed ... (Director)
- The Magicians of Wanzerbé ... (Director)
- Hombroï ... (Director)
1947
- In the Land of the Black Magi ... (Director)