Jackie Raynal graduated in literature in Paris in 1960. One year later she was studying photography and made a reportage with cameraman Patrice Wyers on the Olmec civilization. She studied editing with Francis Bouchet who employed her as an intern on a number of short films including, Méditérannée by Jean-Daniel Pollet. In 1963, Raynal co-directed her first film about the dancer Merce Cunningham with cameramen Etienne Becker and Patrice Wyers. The following year, she met Barbet Schroeder, a young producer who entrusted her with the editing of Eric Rohmer’s films. Jackie Raynal worked on many of Rohmer’s films until 1968. In 1966, she edited all the sketches from the film Paris vu par… (Six in Paris) and collaborated with Jean Douchet, Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Daniel Pollet, Eric Rohmer and Jean Rouch. It was whilst editing the film Détruisez-vous that she met Sylvina Boissonas a young patron of the arts, who was to finance her first film Deux fois. After living for over… read more
Jackie Raynal graduated in literature in Paris in 1960. One year later she was studying photography and made a reportage with cameraman Patrice Wyers on the Olmec civilization. She studied editing with Francis Bouchet who employed her as an intern on a number of short films including, Méditérannée by Jean-Daniel Pollet. In 1963, Raynal co-directed her first film about the dancer Merce Cunningham with cameramen Etienne Becker and Patrice Wyers. The following year, she met Barbet Schroeder, a young producer who entrusted her with the editing of Eric Rohmer’s films. Jackie Raynal worked on many of Rohmer’s films until 1968. In 1966, she edited all the sketches from the film Paris vu par… (Six in Paris) and collaborated with Jean Douchet, Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Daniel Pollet, Eric Rohmer and Jean Rouch. It was whilst editing the film Détruisez-vous that she met Sylvina Boissonas a young patron of the arts, who was to finance her first film Deux fois. After living for over 8 months in an American commune, Jackie Raynal travelled across Asia to explore the wider world. In 1972, she decided to emigrate to New York where she was invited to select the programming at the Carnegie Hall Cinema. In 1977, she reopened the now legendary Bleecker Street Cinema changing it into a two-screen cinema which she managed and programmed between 1977 and 1991. It was there in 1981 that she showed Jim Jarmusch’s first feature-length films, as well as giving early exposure to films by Spike Lee, Yvonne Rainer and Amos Poe. In 1980, Raynal produced and directed New York Story then Hotel New York. She continued working as a director and programmer in the Angelika, a cinema on 57th street in New York through the 1990s. Raynal now divides her time between New York and Paris and curates the “I Mille Occhi” festival in Trieste, Italy and occasionally the Anthology Film Archives in New York. In April 2009, in New York there will be retrospective of her work at the Alliance Francaise. —fidmarseille
