Mark Rappaport (born January 15, 1942, inNew York City, United States) is an Americanindependent/underground film director and film critic, who has been working since the 1960s.
Born and raised inBrighton Beach, New York, Rappaport graduated fromBrooklyn 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.[1]
Rappaport’s first feature,Casual Relations (1974), was later described inThe A.V. Club as “a formidable exercise in the narrative ambiguities that would dominate many of his films to come.”[2] The next several years broughtMozart in Love (1975),Local Color (1977), theMax Ophuls-influencedThe Scenic Route (1978), andImposters (1979).[3]Roger Ebert called the film “a witty and mannered exercise in style and social observation.”[4] Rappaport’s last narrative feature wasChain Letters (1985).[5]
In May 2012, Rappaport filed a lawsuit against professorRay Carney for refusing to returndigital 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 anonline petition demanding that Carney return the masters.[8][9][10]
In 1994, Rappaport started contributing to the French film journalTrafic, created bySerge Daney two years earlier. Since then, he has published more than 40 pieces, and several collections, includingThe Moviegoer Who Knew Too Much (2013) and(F)au(x)tobiographies (2013).[11]
