Michel Ciment

Michel Ciment (26 May 1938 – 13 November 2023) was a French film critic and the editor of the cinema magazine Positif.

Michel Ciment was born in Paris on 26 May 1938. He was a Chevalier of the Order of Merit, Knight of the Legion of Honour, Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters, and the president of FIPRESCI. Ciment died in Paris on 13 November 2023, at the age of 85.

Ciment was noted for his love for American film, somewhat unusual in his French cultural environment. He credited his Americophilia to his memories of the liberation of Paris by American soldiers in 1944, when he was a child. Ciment's parents were Alexander and Helene Cziment; they changed their last name after the war. His father was a Hungarian-Jewish tailor and an immigrant to France, putting the family in particular danger during the Nazi occupation.

He wrote books on great film directors, which were based on extensive interviews with their subjects. An anthology of interviews, Film World, was published in English 2009.

Favorite films
Ciment participated in the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll, where he listed his ten favorite films as follows: 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Earrings of Madame de..., Fellini's Casanova, Persona, Providence, The Rules of the Game, Salvatore Giuliano, Sansho the Bailiff, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, and Trouble in Paradise.

Publications

 * Kazan par Kazan (1973)
 * Le Dossier Rosi (1976)
 * Le Livre de Losey (1979)
 * Stanley Kubrick (1980)
 * Boorman : un visionnaire en son temps (1985)
 * Theo Angelopoulos (1989)
 * Le crime à l'écran : Une histoire de l'Amérique, coll. "Découvertes Gallimard" (n° 139), Paris: Gallimard (1992)
 * Passeport pour Hollywood : entretiens avec Wilder, Huston, Mankiewicz, Polanski, Forman & Wenders, (1992)
 * Fritz Lang : le meurtre et la loi, coll. "Découvertes Gallimard" (n° 442), Paris: Gallimard (2003)
 * Petite planète cinématographique (2003)

Film festival juror

 * 26th Berlin International Film Festival, 1976
 * 1978 Cannes Film Festival
 * 1990 Locarno International Film Festival

Honours and distinctions

 * Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur
 * Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Mérite
 * Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
 * Président de la FIPRESCI