Nelly Kaplan

Nelly Kaplan was an Argentine-born French writer and film director who focused on the arts, film, and filmmakers. She studied economics at the University of Buenos Aires. Passionate about cinema, she abruptly put her studies on hold to go to Paris in 1953 to represent the new Argentine film archive at an international convention and later became a correspondent for different Argentine newspapers. She had arrived with a resume highlighting her journalistic experience and a letter of introduction to Henri Langlois, founder and curator of the Cinémathèque Française, who introduced her to Abel Gance. Gance gave her the opportunity to work on the film La tour de Nesle.
She became Gance's assistant during the film and made and showed the program Magirama in Polyvision, then, still at Gance's side, she collaborated with him on Austerlitz. He trusted her with the direction of all the second crew's action scenes during the filming of his movie Cyrano and d'Artagnan.
Meanwhile, she published her work about Magirama under the name Le Manifeste d'un art nouveau, with a preface by Philippe Soupault. In 1960, she published a film report entitled Le Sunlight of Austerlitz, through the Plon publishing house.
Beginning in 1961, she directed an entire series of art shorts, which won numerous prizes in various international festivals. Among these shorts were "Gustave Moreau," an analysis of the 19th century symbolist painter; "Rudolphe Bresdin," the engraver; "Dessins et merveilles," on the sketchbooks of Victor Hugo, as well as "Les années 25 ", " La Nouvelle Orangerie ", "Abel Gance hier et demain ", " A la source, la femme aimée", titles based on the secret notebooks of the painter André Masson.
Her first feature movie, A Very Curious Girl, was the focus of a Kaplan retrospective in 2019, Wild Things: The Ferocious Films of Nelly Kaplan. She filmed and produced a 1966 documentary, The Picasso Look, about the works of Picasso being delivered and displayed in Paris.

Biography

Nelly Kaplan was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina to a Jewish family. A "neo-surrealist," she was "the only female film maker linked with surrealism." Kaplan left for France at the age of 21. She served as a professor and lecturer at Institut des Hautes Études en Arts Plastiques.Her works are often female-centered and approach eroticism from a woman's point of view.
Her films have been shown at many international festivals. As a member of the SACD, she took part in the board of directors as a member of the Cinema Commission on several occasions. Kaplan regularly collaborated on the show "Des Papous dans la Tête," on France Culture. She contributed to the cinema section of the magazine Le Magazine Littéraire for 25 years. Kaplan was Commander of the Arts and Letters, Officer in the National Merite Order, Cavalier of the Legion of Honor, and Academician of the Alphonse Allais Academy.
Nelly Kaplan died from COVID-19 at a nursing home in Geneva on 12 November 2020 aged 89, just 3 month later that her husband Claude Makoski.

Books and movies

Fiction

La géométrie dans les spasmes, Le Terrain Vague, 1959.La Reine des sabbats, Le Terrain Vague, 1960.«...et délivrez nous du mâle», Le Terrain Vague, 1960.Le Réservoir des sens, nouvelles, La Jeune Parque, 1966; rééd. J-J.Pauvert, 1988; rééd. augmentée Le Castor Astral, 1995. Le Collier de Ptyx, ciné-roman, J-J.Pauvert, 1971. Mémoires d'une liseuse de draps, roman, J-J.Pauvert, 1974.Aux Orchidées sauvages, roman, La Différence, 1998. Un Manteau de fou rire, roman, La Différence, 1998. Ils furent une étrange comète, roman, Le Castor Astral, 2002. Cuisses de grenouille, roman, Maren Sell Editeurs, 2005 Et Pandore en avait deux..! followed by Mon Cygne, mon Signe, Editions du Rocher, 2008 Ecris-moi tes hauts faits et tes crimes… Correspondance avec André Pieyre de Mandiargues, Editions du Rocher, 2009

Essays on cinema

Manifeste d'un art nouveau: la Polyvision, Caractères, 1955.Le Sunlight d'Austerlitz, journal d'un tournage, Plon, 1960. Napoleon, British Film Institute Classics, 1994.

Filmography

Co-writer of the film Il faut vivre dangereusement, by Claude Makovski, 1974.
Co-writer of Jean Chapot's téléfilms: Livingstone, 1980 Un fait d'hiver, 1981 La Tentation d'Antoine, 1981 Ce fut un bel été, 1982 Meurtre sans pourboire, 1983 Le Regard dans le miroir, 1984Le Crépuscule des loups, 1986 Les Mouettes, 1989 Honorin et la Loreleï, 1991 Polly West est de retour, 1993 Honorin et l'enfant prodigue, 1994.La Petite fille en costume marin, 1997.
Collaborated over 22 years to the Magazine Littéraire with a column on film adaptations from books.