Jean-Claude Rousseau was born in Paris. While in New York in the ’70s, he discovered the avant-garde cinema and the films of Yasujiro Ozu. Back in France, he began an artistic practice and published texts on the work of Robert Bresson, connecting them to the aesthetics of the painter Jan Vermeer.
In 1980, he finished his script, The Pastoral Concert, published by Paris Expérimental, and directed his first film in 1983 in Super 8: Jeune femme à sa fenêtre lisant une lettre. After that came two short films, Venise n’existe pas (1984) and Keep in Touch (1987), also filmed in Super 8. The Antiquities of Rome (1989) is his first feature. He used Super 8 unusually: where short shorts were usually privileged, he used long takes; where the camera usually moved, he used a fixed position.
In addition to festivals, his work was submitted to the Centre Georges Pompidou, New York University, the Royal Belgian Film Archive, as well as… read more
Jean-Claude Rousseau was born in Paris. While in New York in the ’70s, he discovered the avant-garde cinema and the films of Yasujiro Ozu. Back in France, he began an artistic practice and published texts on the work of Robert Bresson, connecting them to the aesthetics of the painter Jan Vermeer.
In 1980, he finished his script, The Pastoral Concert, published by Paris Expérimental, and directed his first film in 1983 in Super 8: Jeune femme à sa fenêtre lisant une lettre. After that came two short films, Venise n’existe pas (1984) and Keep in Touch (1987), also filmed in Super 8. The Antiquities of Rome (1989) is his first feature. He used Super 8 unusually: where short shorts were usually privileged, he used long takes; where the camera usually moved, he used a fixed position.
In addition to festivals, his work was submitted to the Centre Georges Pompidou, New York University, the Royal Belgian Film Archive, as well as Fresnoy. To accompany the screening of a new copy of their film Otto, Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet asked the French Cinematheque to show La Vallée close. It is through their support that this second feature has been transferred to 16 mm. He was selected by the Locarno Film Festival in 1997 and won the Grand Prix of the Belfort Documentary Festival in 1999.
The general release of Antiquities of Rome and La Vallée close was held at the Studio des Ursulines in Paris in September 2000. The following year a tribute was paid to him the Venice Film Festival with a full lineup of his films. In 2002, he presented his first achievement in digital video, Letter to Roberto, at the International Documentary Festival of Marseille and the Locarno Film Festival.
Keep in touch and Antiquities of Rome are projected as part of the Etats Généraux du Film Documentaire. In 2003, a program of his short films takes place at Festival Nemo and the Lisbon Biennale, plus a retrospective exhibition at the festival in Jeon Ju, Korea. Then, he directed Juste avant l’orage. This film will be presented in Marseilles and Locarno, and festivals in Turin and Rotterdam. In the autumn of that year, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Strasbourg hosts for the programming of all of his work.
In 2004, Jean-Claude Rousseau returned to the festival at Jeon Ju to show Juste avant l’orage and present two new films, Faibles amusements and Contretemps, which are then screened at Locarno, Turin, Viennale and the documentary festival in Marseilles. The year ends with a program of his films on digital video in the Franco-Japanese Institute in Tokyo.
In 2005, the Festival Côté Court de Pantin showed a retrospective accompanied by a new film, called Non rendu. Since then he completed Comme une ombre légère, a component, with Faibles amusements and Contretemps, of the triptych Trois fois rien. Made the same year, Une vue sur l’autre rive in January 2006 completed a comprehensive program of his films offered by Les Cahiers du Cinema Festival Premiers Plans d’Angers. This was an opportunity for another short film he entitled False start. He presides, in July, on the competition jury at the festival of French literature from Marseilles. He also screens a new film: The Starless Night.
The following year, he receives the grand prize in international competition from Marseilles. In autumn 2007, Jean-Claude Rousseau is in Rome for a full retrospective at the Villa Medicis and Cineteca Nazionale.
In 2009, Capricci published a book on his film La Vallée close that was included with the film’s DVD release. In it, Rousseau describes his practice and explains his method.
