Dimitri Kirsanoff

Kirsanoff was born Markus David Sussmanovitch Kaplan on 5 March 1899 in Tartu (then Juryev), Estonia, then Russian Empire. Many of the facts about his early life have been difficult to verify, and different sources have lent support to alternative accounts. It seems that his parents were Lithuanian Jews who had come to Tartu in 1870. After the murder of his father by Bolsheviks in 1919, ==Career==

During the period 1921-1929 (the last years of silent cinema) Kirsanoff completed five fiction films (three features and two short or medium-length), all of them featuring the actress Nadia Sibirskaïa. Kirsanoff's approach to film-making was preoccupied most of all by the image - how it is composed and how it relates to other images, and not just for its capacity to illustrate a story. Kirsanoff's first sound film was Rapt (1934), based on La Séparation des races by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, and produced in Switzerland. Use of dialogue is kept to a minimum, but greater prominence is taken on by the musical score, written by Arthur Honegger and Arthur Hoérée. The finished film received very limited distribution however, and although it went on to gather admiration from film historians, it could not compete in a market increasingly dominated by large American companies. It was the last feature film which Kirsanoff had the freedom to work as he wanted. Kirsanoff died suddenly from a heart attack in Paris on 11 February 1957, at the age of 57. ==Filmography==

• 1923: ''L'Ironie du destin''; feature film, believed lost • 1926: Ménilmontant; medium length film • 1927: Sables; feature film • 1927: Destin; feature film • 1929: ''Brumes d'automne''; short • 1929: Impressions africaines; short; filmed during making of Sables • 1934: Rapt: la séparation des races; feature film • 1936: Visages de France; medium length, believed lost • 1936: Les Berceaux; short (Cinéphonie), accompanied by Fauré's song • 1936: ''La Fontaine d'Aréthuse; short (Cinéphonie''), accompanied by music of Szymanowski • 1936: Jeune Fille au jardin; short (Cinéphonie), accompanied by Mompou's music • 1937: Franco de port; feature film • 1938: ''L'Avion de minuit''; feature film • 1938: La Plus Belle Fille du monde; feature film • 1939: Quartier sans soleil; feature film (released 1945) • 1946: Deux amis; short, based on story by Maupassant • 1950: Faits divers à Paris; feature film • 1950: Alerte au lait sale; short, commissioned documentary • 1950: 22 Boulevard Carnot; short, commissioned documentary • 1950: Arrière-saison; short • 1952: La Mort du cerf: une chasse à courre; short • 1952: Conte de la forêt; short • 1953: Le Témoin de minuit; feature film • 1955: Mécanisation et remembrement; short, commissioned documentary • 1955: Le Crâneur; feature film • 1956: Ce soir les jupons volent; feature film • 1957: Miss Catastrophe; feature film == See also ==