Born and raised in
Brighton Beach, New York, Rappaport graduated from
Brooklyn College in 1964 with a B.A. in literature. In 2005, he moved to Paris, France, where he resides and works. Starting in 1966, Rappaport directed a number of short films and six low-budget features, all made independently with low budgets. Rappaport’s first feature,
Casual Relations (1974), was later described in
The A.V. Club as “a formidable exercise in the narrative ambiguities that would dominate many of his films to come.” The next several years brought
Mozart in Love (1975),
Local Color (1977), the
Max Ophuls-influenced
The Scenic Route (1978), and
Imposters (1979).
Roger Ebert called the film “a witty and mannered exercise in style and social observation.” Rappaport’s last narrative feature was
Chain Letters (1985). In 1992, Rappaport began the second phase of his career, in which he moved from scripted narrative to the form of the
video essay. The first of these was ''
Rock Hudson's Home Movies'', a documentary on
Rock Hudson's homosexuality as seen through clips from his films. The same form was used for
From the Journals of Jean Seberg (1995), in which actress
Mary Beth Hurt spoke as
Jean Seberg; and
The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender (1997), narrated by
Dan Butler. Because of this work, critic
Matt Zoller Seitz called Rappaport "the father of the modern
video essay." Starting in 2014, Rappaport turned to short video essays on film history, chronicling the careers of actors (
Anita Ekberg,
Marcel Dalio,
Debra Paget, Chris Olsen,
Conrad Veidt,
Will Geer) and specific directors (
Douglas Sirk,
Max Ophuls,
Sergei Eisenstein,
Jacques Tati and
Robert Bresson). In May 2012, Rappaport filed a lawsuit against professor
Ray Carney for refusing to return
digital masters of his movies which the filmmaker had previously entrusted to Carney to transport to Paris. The suit was later dropped due to rising legal costs, and Rappaport started an
online petition demanding that Carney return the masters. In 1994, Rappaport started contributing to the French film journal
Trafic, created by
Serge Daney two years earlier. Since then, he has published more than 40 pieces, and several collections, including
The Moviegoer Who Knew Too Much (2013) and
(F)au(x)tobiographies (2013). ==Recognition==