Jean Douchet, born in France, in 1929, is a filmmaker, historian, critic and cinema professor. After finishing his studies in Philosophy, he started working for La Gazette du Cinéma and, from 1957 on, with Cahiers du Cinéma, where he met other critics that would form the French Nouvelle Vague, such as Rohmer, Godard, Chabrol and Truffaut. He made an impression early on, due to some important works on Alfred Hitchcock and the Nouvelle Vague, but also remarkable analyses on the works of filmmakers such as Murnau, Mizoguchi, Vincent Minelli, Kurosawa and Jean-Daniel Pollet. It is thanks to Douchet that Serge Daney joined the Cahiers.
He would later become one of the magazine’s most iconic critics. As a film analysis professor, at the Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques and its successor La Fémis, his lectures made an impression on some of the young directors who were his students and invited him to participate in their movies, including François Ozon, Émilie Deleuze and Xavier Beauvois.
Douchet has held, for several years, a weekly film club at the French Cinematheque, with an analysis and a debate with the audience at the end of each session. He also encourages other French film clubs, in other cities, with monthly sessions following the same method. As a filmmaker, thought that is not his main occupation, Douchet directed several short films and documentaries made for television.
AT THE FESTIVAL
THE GUARDIANS
November 19th, 6.30PM
Cinema Medeia Monumental
JEAN DOUCHET, RESTLESS CHILD
November 20th, 7.15PM
Cinema Medeia Monumental