Michel Ciment

Michel Jean Ciment (; 26 May 1938 – 13 November 2023) was a French film critic, author, and editor of the cinema magazine Positif. He was also a maître de conférences in American civilization at the University of Paris-VII.

Biography

Ciment was born in the 9th arrondissement of Paris on 26 May 1938, the son of Alexander and Hélène Cziment. His father, a Hungarian Jew, had settled in the French capital in the 1920s and narrowly escaped the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup in 1942, fleeing to Normandy where he was later joined by his son. Ciment's French mother was also Jewish, but kept this fact hidden until just before her death (he was baptised and raised as a Catholic). He attended the Lycée Condorcet, then enrolled in a Classe préparatoire aux grandes écoles at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, where he was influenced by the teaching of philosopher Gilles Deleuze. He studied English at the Sorbonne, and in 1958–59, was a Fulbright scholar at Amherst College in the United States, where he gained a knowledge of American history.

Ciment was noted for his love for American film, somewhat unusual in his French cultural environment. He credited his Americophilia to his memories of the liberation of Paris by American soldiers in 1944, when he was a child. his first mainstream film review (of The Trial ) was published in Positif magazine in 1963. He was made a board member at the influencal periodical in 1966 and went on to become its de facto chief editor, later assuming the role of publishing director in 2004. In 1972, Cimemt became a film critic on the France Inter radio programme Le Masque et la Plume, to which he contributed until a few weeks before his death. From 1990 to 2016, he also hosted Projection privée on the radio station France Culture. An anthology of interviews, Film World, was published in English 2009. He was the first recipient of the Prix Maurice Bessy, presented at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. He died in Paris on 13 November 2023, aged 85, being survived by his second wife, Evelyne Hazan-Ciment, and son. His first wife, Jeannine, who worked with him at Positif, died in 1986.

Film criticism

Ciment regarded cinema as a synthesis of all the arts, stating that he could not imagine being a film critic without a knowledge of theatre, literature, painting, and music. He preferred to know as little as possible about a film when viewing it for the first time, and avoided reading press releases in advance.

Publications

Passeport pour Hollywood : entretiens avec Wilder, Huston, Mankiewicz, Polanski, Forman & Wenders, (1992)

Film festival juror 1976 Berlin International Film Festival 1978 Cannes Film Festival 1990 Locarno International Film Festival 1991 Venice International Film Festival 1995 Montreal World Film Festival

Honours and distinctions Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Mérite Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Président de la FIPRESCI