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)
- Maya Deren, Take Zero as Himself
- Freddy Buache, le cinéma as Self (archive footage)
2011
- Jean Epstein, Young Oceans of Cinema as Self (archive footage)
2010
- Sodankylä Forever as Self
- The Dreamed Films as Self
2004
- Jean Rouch, des mensonges plus vrais que la réalité as Lui-même
- Portrait de Jean Rouch as Self
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
- Announcement ... (Director)
- A Friendly Handshake
- I'm Tired of Standing, I Lie Down ... (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
- Damouré Speaks About AIDS ... (Director)
- An Egg with No Shell
- Letter to Jean Rouch as Self
1991
- Jean Rouch: First Film 1947-1991 as Himself
1990
- Liberté, égalité, fraternité, et puis après... ... (Director)
- Brise-glace ... (Director)
1989
- Boulevards d'Afrique ... (Director)
1987
- Cousin, cousine ... (Director)
- Couleur du temps. Berlin, Août 1945 ... (Director)
- Brise-glace : Bateau givre ... (Director of Photography)
1986
- The Ordinary Madness of a Daughter of Ham ... (Director)
- Enigma ... (Director)
1984
- 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
- Cinématon as N°1256
- Margaret Mead: A Portrait By a Friend ... (Director)
1977
- Hommage à Marcel Mauss. Germaine Dieterlen ... (Director)
- Ispahan: A Persian Letter (The Chah Mosque at Ispahan) as Lui-même
- Badye, the Storyteller ... (Director)
- Samba the Great as Narrator
- Makwayela ... (Director)
1976
- Babatou, Three Pieces of Advice ... (Director)
1975
- Zomo et ses frères ... (Director)
1974
- Cock-A-Doodle-Doo! Mr Chicken ... (Director)
- Pam Kuso Kar (Breaking Pam's Vases) ... (Director)
- The Dama of Ambara: To Enchant Death ... (Director)
1973
- The Year 01 ... (Co-Director)
- Giraffe Football or “The Alternative” ... (Director)
- Boukoki ... (Director)
- The Burial of the Hogon ... (Director)
- Funeral Rites for Women in Bongo ... (Director)
- Sigui 1973: The Canopy of Circumcision ... (Director)
- VW-Voyou ... (Director)
1972
- Sigui 1972: The Loincloths of Yamé ... (Director)
- Horendi ... (Director)
- Un lion nommé l'Américain ... (Director)
1971
- Samedi soir as Self
- Drums from the Past ... (Director)
- Sigui 1971: The Dune of Idyeli ... (Director)
1970
- Mya - la mère ... (Director)
- Little by Little ... (Director)
- Sigui 1970: The Clamours of Amani ... (Director)
- Architects of Ayorou ... (Director)
1969
- Sigui 1969: The Cave of Bongo ... (Director)
1968
- Sigui 1968: The Dancers of Tyogou ... (Director)
- Yenendi de Ganghel (Rain Dance at Ganghel) ... (Director)
- Ayorou Singing Stones ... (Director)
1967
- Sigui 1967: L'enclume de Yougo ... (Director)
- Jaguar ... (Director)
- Civilisation: L'homme et les images as Self
- Daouda Sorko ... (Director)
1966
- World Without a Game as Self
- Dogon Drums, Elements of a Study in Rhythm ... (Director)
- The Goumbé of the Young Revelers ... (Writer)
- The Lion Hunters ... (Director)
1965
- Gare du Nord ... (Director)
- Six in Paris ... (Director)
1964
- That Tender Age ... (Director)
- L'Afrique et la recherche scientifique ... (Director)
- La Nouvelle Vague par elle-même as Self
- The Fifteen-Year-Old Widows ... (Director)
1963
- The Lovely Month of May as Self (uncredited)
- Monsieur Albert, prophète ... (Director)
- Les cocotiers ... (Director)
- Rose et Landry ... (Director)
- Le palmier à l'huile ... (Director)
1962
- The Doll as Officer (uncredited)
- Hampi ... (Director)
- Les pêcheurs du Niger ... (Director)
- Niger Festivals: December 1961 - Niger Independence Days ... (Director)
- Urbanisme africain ... (Director)
- The Punishment ... (Director)
- Le mil ... (Director)
- Abidjan, port de pêche ... (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
- Moro Naba ... (Director)
- La royale goumbé ... (Director)
- Une sortie de novices de Sakpata ... (Director)
1957
- Baby Ghana ... (Director)
1955
- The Mad Masters as Narrator
1953
- Mammy Water ... (Producer)
1951
- Cemeteries in the Cliff ... (Director)
- The Rainmakers ... (Director)
- Les gens du mil ... (Director)
1950
- Battle on the Great River ... (Director)
1949
- Circumcision ... (Producer)
1948
- Initiation into the Dance of the Possessed ... (Director)
- Hombroï ... (Director)
- The Magicians of Wanzerbé ... (Director)
1947
- In the Land of the Black Magi ... (Director)