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Jean Rouch

Jean Rouch

Director & actor · born 31 May 1917 · Paris, France

Jean Rouch (French: [ʁuʃ]; 31 May 1917, Paris – 18 February 2004, Niger) was a French filmmaker and anthropologist.

He is considered to be one of the founders of cinéma-vérité in France, which shared the aesthetics of the direct cinema. Rouch's practice as a filmmaker for over sixty years in Africa, was characterized by the idea of shared anthropology. Influenced by his discovery of surrealism in his early twenties, many of his films blur the line between fiction and documentary, creating a new style of ethnofiction. He was also hailed by the French New Wave as one of theirs. His seminal film Me a Black (Moi, un noir) pioneered the technique of jump cut popularized by Jean-Luc Godard. Godard said of Rouch in the Cahiers du Cinéma (Notebooks on Cinema) n°94 April 1959, "In charge of research for the Musée de l'Homme (French, "Museum of Man") Is there a better definition for a filmmaker?" Along his career, Rouch was no stranger to controversy.

Where to start: Le Rêve plus fort que la mort (2002).

As director 96

As actor 24

Frequently asked questions

What is the best Jean Rouch movie?

By viewer score, Le Rêve plus fort que la mort (2002) at 0.0/10.

What are Jean Rouch’s most popular movies?

Chronicle of a Summer, Chronicle of a Summer, The Mad Masters.

How many movies has Jean Rouch made?

120 films on TMDB, 96 as director, 24 as actor.

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