Frédéric Rossif

Biography

Frédéric Rossif (February 16, 1922 – April 18, 1990) was a French film and television director who specialized primarily in documentaries, frequently using archive footage. Rossif's common themes included wildlife, 20th-century history and contemporary artists. He frequently collaborated with notable composers Maurice Jarre and Vangelis. Rossif was born in Cetinje, Montenegro, Yugoslavia. His family was killed during the Second World War. He studied in Rome in late 1930s and early 1940s before joining the French Foreign Legion's 13th Demi-Brigade in 1944. After the war, in 1945 Rossif established himself in Paris and worked at Club Saint-Germain. During those years he got acquainted with Jean-Paul Sartre, Boris Vian, Albert Camus, Ernest Hemingway and Malcolm Lowry among others. Since 1948 Rossif actively collaborated with the Cinémathèque Française, organizing, among other things, an avant-garde festival at Antibes in 1949–50. In 1952 he joined the ORTF. Some of the first projects he participated in include Cinq colonnes à la une, Éditions spéciales, La Vie des animaux and François Chalais' Cinépanorama (1956) (producer); La Villa Santo-Sospir (1952), a documentary about a villa…

Directed

1. To Die in Madrid (1963) — Director
2. De Nuremberg à Nuremberg (1989) — Director
3. Portrait d'Orson Welles (1968) — Director
4. The Witnesses (1961) — Director
5. The Wild Nation (1976) — Director
6. Spain (1963) — Director
7. Matisse (1951) — Director
8. The Apocalypse of the Animals (1973) — Director
9. Sauvage et beau (1984) — Director
10. Brel (1982) — Director
11. Le cantique des créatures: Georges Braque ou Le temps différent (1975) — Director
12. As Far as Love Can Go (1971) — Director
13. A Wall in Jerusalem (1968) — Director
14. The Animals (1963) — Director
15. October Revolution (1967) — Director
16. Pablo Picasso Painter (1982) — Director
17. Chagall dans son jardin a Saint-Paul-de-Vence (1970) — Director
18. Georges Mathieu or the Fury of Being (1971) — Director
19. Why America (1970) — Director
20. Jean-Pierre Melville on the Set of Le Deuxième Souffle (1966) — Director
21. De Nuremberg à Nuremberg (1989) — Director
22. The Apocalypse of the Animals (1973) — Director

Also appeared in

1. Royal Affairs in Versailles (1953) — Un homme du peuple (uncredited)
2. Cinépanorama (1956) — Self
3. Midi Première (1975) — Self
4. Samedi soir (1971) — Self
5. Les Rendez-vous du dimanche (1975) — Self