Suzanne Schiffman

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Suzanne Schiffman (born September 27, 1929 in Paris ; † June 6, 2001 there ; actually Suzanne Klochendler ) was a French screenwriter and director .

Life

Schiffman was born Suzanne Klochendler in Paris in 1929. After graduating in art history from the Sorbonne , where she made friends with young filmmakers, she entered the film business as a script girl for Nouvelle Vague directors Jean-Luc Godard , Jacques Rivette and François Truffaut .

“We all got to know each other in the front rows of the movie theaters. We talked, strolled through Paris for hours and sat in cafes. There were other girls, more or less in love, who sometimes stopped by. But I was the only girl who was in love with the cinema like her. "

- Suzanne Schiffman

From then on, she worked frequently with Truffaut, mostly as a screenwriter, but also as an assistant director and casting director. Together with him and Jean-Louis Richard , she received an Oscar nomination in 1975 for Best Original Screenplay for The American Night . The character of the script girl Joelle, played by Nathalie Baye , was created autobiographically by Schiffman. In 1981 she and Truffaut won the César in the Best Screenplay category for The Last Metro . The script for the film about a French theater under German occupation was inspired by Schiffman's own war experience. During the German occupation of France, her Jewish mother was arrested by French aid agents of the Gestapo and initially deported to a camp near Beaune . Schiffman and her siblings went into hiding with an order of nuns. Meanwhile, her father met another woman and had a relationship with her. The children liked the new woman at their father's side, but hoped for their mother's return. She eventually died in a German concentration camp. In The Last Metro , like Schiffman, the female protagonist, played by Catherine Deneuve , gets into a conflict of conscience when she falls in love with her fellow actors while her Jewish husband has to hide from the Nazis in the basement of the theater.

After Truffaut's death in 1984, Schiffman found it difficult to work with other directors. So she decided to make her own films. In 1987 she made her directorial debut with The Monk and the Witch . For the medieval drama about the role of the church in relation to the oppression of women, Schiffman received a nomination for the César in the category of best first work . In addition, she also sponsored young filmmakers, who she supported financially and with their professional contacts.

She was married to the American artist Philippe Schiffman from 1949 until his death in 2000. Their sons, Matthieu and Guillaume , also work as actors and cameramen in the film business. Suzanne Schiffman died of cancer in 2001 at the age of 71. She was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

Filmography (selection)

Script:

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Sophie Baker: Suzanne Schiffman. Award-winning French film-maker who began her career as a New Wave script girl . In: The Guardian , June 14, 2001.
  2. ^ “All of us sitting in the front rows, we got acquainted. We talked, and walked through Paris for hours and, yes, we sat in cafes. There were other girls, more or less in love, who came around a few times. But I was the only girl who was like them, friends in love with the cinema. " Suzanne Schiffman quoted. based on Gerald Peary: Schiffman: From Script Girl to Director . In: Los Angeles Times , September 25, 1988.
  3. ↑ Gerald Peary: Schiffman: From Script Girl to Director . In: Los Angeles Times , September 25, 1988.
personal data
SURNAME Schiffman, Suzanne
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Klochendler, Suzanne (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French screenwriter and director
DATE OF BIRTH September 27, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH June 6, 2001
Place of death Paris