Pierre Kast

Pierre Kast (22 September 1920 – 20 October 1984) was a French film director, film critic, screenwriter, and novelist. He was a contributor to Cahiers du cinéma from its founding in 1951 and his feature films ranged from witty studies of bourgeois sexual politics to politically inflected science fiction. A former French Resistance fighter, he remained engaged with left-wing politics throughout his life and published several novels alongside his film work.

Biography

Early life and the Resistance

Kast was born in Paris on 22 September 1920 into a Protestant bourgeois family. He attended the Lycée Henri IV before studying literature at the Sorbonne. During the German occupation of France, he became active in the French Resistance as a member of the Communist Students of Paris, serving as a student leader of the Young Communists. He began writing film criticism for Action and for Le Patriote Résistant, a magazine published by the National Federation of Deported and Interned Resistance Fighters. Alongside the writer Boris Vian and the novelist Raymond Queneau, he co-founded the Club des Savanturiers on 26 December 1951, a discussion group dedicated to American science fiction.

He was a contributor to Cahiers du cinéma from its first issue in 1951 and wrote regularly for the journal throughout the decade. His criticism focused on mise-en-scène as the locus of directorial authorship, and he was among the earliest French critics to champion American genre directors such as Robert Aldrich. He was also an early voice on the question of women's representation in the film industry; in issue no. 30 of Cahiers, he published an essay attacking the systematic exclusion of women from directing.

Concurrently with his critical work, Kast built a career as an assistant director, working with Jean Grémillon on Pattes blanches (1949) and L'Étrange Madame X (1951), with René Clément on Jeux interdits (1952), with Jean Renoir on French Cancan (1955), and with Preston Sturges on The Diary of Major Thompson (1955). With Grémillon, he also co-directed the short film Les Charmes de l'existence (1949).

Kast was also a novelist. His works include Les Vampires de l'Alfama (1975), set in eighteenth-century Portugal during the rule of the Marquis of Pombal, which used vampire fiction as an allegory for political and sexual oppression.

From the late 1960s he found it increasingly difficult to finance the original projects he favoured. His final film, L'Herbe rouge (1985), was a television adaptation of the novel by Boris Vian. On 20 October 1984, having been injured in an accident on a set at Cinecittà in Rome, Kast died of a cardiac arrest during his medical repatriation by air to Paris. He was 64. His death occurred one day before that of François Truffaut.

Filmography

As director

Feature films Year Original title Notes 1957 Un amour de poche 1960 Also co-writer with Jacques Doniol-Valcroze 1961 The Season for Love 1963 Thank You, Natercia Also co-writer with Peter Oser 1963 Vacances portugaises Also co-writer with Alain Aptekman, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Robert Scipion 1964 Also co-writer with Alain Aptekman 1966 Carnets brésiliens Television documentary 1966 La Naissance de l'Empire romain Television documentary; co-directed with Jean Chérasse 1966 Vendredi noir Television documentary 1966 Marguerite Yourcenar Television documentary portrait for Vocation series 1968 Bandeira Branca de Oxalá Documentary; also co-writer with Jean-Gabriel Albicocco 1968 Drôle de jeu Co-directed with Jean-Daniel Pollet 1972 Les Soleils de l'Île de Pâques 1976 A Nudez de Alexandra 1980 Le Soleil en face Also co-writer with Alain Aptekman 1982 La Guérilléra Also co-writer with Antonio Tarruella 1982 Le Jour le plus court Television film 1985 L'Herbe rouge Television film

Short films and documentaries Year Original title Notes 1949 Les Charmes de l'existence Co-directed with Jean Grémillon 1951 Les Femmes du Louvre Documentary 1951 Arithmétique Short featuring co-writer Raymond Queneau 1951 Les Désastres de la guerre 1952 Je sème à tous vents Also co-writer with François Chalais 1953 Paris, nous voici ! 1954 Monsieur Robida, prophète et explorateur du temps Co-directed with Jacques Doniol-Valcroze 1954 L'Architecte maudit: Claude-Nicolas Ledoux Documentary 1957 Le Corbusier, l'architecte du bonheur Documentary 1959 Images pour Baudelaire 1959 Des ruines et des hommes Co-directed and co-written with Marcelle Lioret 1960 Une question d'assurance 1962 PXO Documentary 1965 La Brûlure de mille soleils Also co-writer with Eduard Luis

As screenwriter only Year Title Director 1955 The Red Cloak Giuseppe Maria Scotese 1965 A Bullet Through the Heart Jean-Daniel Pollet 1970 Le Maître du temps (The Master of Time) Jean-Daniel Pollet 1971 Le Crépuscule (Early Morning) Jean-Gabriel Albicocco 1974 The Irony of Chance Édouard Molinaro

As assistant director Year Title Director Notes 1949 White Paws Jean Grémillon 1951 The Glass Castle René Clément 1951 The Strange Madame X Jean Grémillon 1952 Forbidden Games René Clément Uncredited 1955 French Cancan Jean Renoir 1955 The French, They Are a Funny Race Preston Sturges Selected publications Jean Gremillon (1960) Les Vampires de l'Alfama (1975) Le Bonheur ou le pouvoir (1980) La Jointure du genou (1981)