Nicolas Gessner

Nicolas Gessner (17 August 1931 – 22 August 2023) was a Swiss film director and screenwriter, born in Hungary. After early work in theatre and film, he began his international film career in 1965 and went on to direct around twenty productions for cinema and television. His films included Someone Behind the Door and The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976), and he later worked in computer animation.

Life and career Nicolas Gessner was born on 17 August 1931 in Budapest to Martin Gessner, a lawyer, and Luise Benes, a special-needs educator, both from Hungary. His family settled in Zurich in 1939. and completed a doctorate in the humanities, He worked as a director at the Stadttheater Luzern. The psychological thriller starred Anthony Perkins and Charles Bronson. He selected Foster after seeing her in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The film won Saturn Awards for Best Horror Film and for Foster as Best Actress.

Selected filmography A selection of Gessner's films as director includes:

Diamonds Are Brittle (1965) The Blonde from Peking (1967) The Thirteen Chairs (1969) Someone Behind the Door (1970) The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976) It Rained All Night the Day I Left (1980) Herr Herr (1982) The Sad Killer (1983) Quicker Than the Eye (1988) Tennessee Waltz (1989)