Nelly Kaplan (11 April 1931 – 12 November 2020)[1][2][3] was anArgentine-born French writer and film director who focused on the arts, film, and filmmakers. She studied economics at theUniversity of Buenos Aires.[1] Passionate about cinema, she abruptly put her studies on hold to go to Paris in 1953 to represent the new Argentine film archive at an international convention and later became a correspondent for different Argentine newspapers. She had arrived with a resume highlighting her journalistic experience and a letter of introduction toHenri Langlois, founder and curator of theCinémathèque Française, who introduced her toAbel Gance.[4] Gance gave her the opportunity to work on the filmLa tour de Nesle.[1]
She became Gance's assistant during the film and made and showed the programMagirama (triple screen) inPolyvision, then, still at Gance's side, she collaborated with him onAusterlitz (1960).[4] He trusted her with the direction of all the second crew's action scenes during the filming of his movieCyrano and d'Artagnan (Cyrano et d'Artagnan, 1964).
Meanwhile, she published her work aboutMagirama under the nameLe Manifeste d'un art nouveau, with a preface byPhilippe Soupault. In 1960, she published a film report entitledLe Sunlight of Austerlitz, through the Plon publishing house.
Beginning in 1961, she directed an entire series of art shorts, which won numerous prizes in various international festivals. Among these shorts were "Gustave Moreau," an analysis of the 19th centurysymbolist painter; "Rudolphe Bresdin," the engraver; "Dessins et merveilles," on the sketchbooks ofVictor Hugo, as well as "Les années 25 ", " La Nouvelle Orangerie ", "Abel Gance hier et demain ", " A la source, la femme aimée", titles based on the secret notebooks of the painterAndré Masson.
Her first feature movie,A Very Curious Girl, was the focus of a Kaplan retrospective in 2019,Wild Things: The Ferocious Films of Nelly Kaplan.[5] She filmed and produced a 1966 documentary,The Picasso Look, about the works of Picasso being delivered and displayed in Paris.
Nelly Kaplan[6] was born inBuenos Aires, Argentina to a Jewish family. A "neo-surrealist,"[7] she was "the only female film maker linked withsurrealism."[8] Kaplan left for France at the age of 21. She served as a professor and lecturer atInstitut des Hautes Études en Arts Plastiques.Her works are often female-centered and approach eroticism from a woman's point of view.[9]
Her films have been shown at many international festivals. As a member of theSACD, she took part in the board of directors as a member of the Cinema Commission on several occasions. Kaplan regularly collaborated on the show "Des Papous dans la Tête," onFrance Culture. She contributed to the cinema section of the magazineLe Magazine Littéraire for 25 years. Kaplan was Commander of the Arts and Letters, Officer in the National Merite Order, Cavalier of theLegion of Honor, and Academician of the Alphonse Allais Academy.
Nelly Kaplan died fromCOVID-19 at a nursing home in Geneva on 12 November 2020 aged 89, just 3 month later that her husband Claude Makoski[clarification needed].[3][10]
In 1965, under the pen-name of Belen, she published a collection of short stories through the J.J. Pauvert Publishing House.Le Réservoir des sens, was a great critical and popular success.
In 1968, she collaborated with Claude Makovski on the script for the movieLa Fiancée du pirate, which she directed in 1969.
In collaboration with Claude Makovski and René Guyonnet, she wrote the adaptation ofPapa, les petits bateaux, which she filmed during the summer of 1971.
In 1972 she publishedLe Collier de Ptyx, a ciné-roman; and in 1974Un Manteau de fou-rire ou les Mémoires d'une liseuse de draps (through the J.J. Pauvert Publishing House). The book presented problems with a prudish censure.
In 1974, Kaplan co-wrote the script of Claude Makovski's filmIl faut vivre dangereusement, which she also produced.
In 1976, she wrote withJean Chapot the script forNéa, which she filmed in Switzerland and Paris in March of that year.
In 1979, she co-wroteCharles et Lucie with Jean Chapot and Claude Makovski, which she shot in spring of the same year.
In 1980-1982, she co-wrote scripts for several TV movies directed by Jean Chapot, includingUn fait d'hiver,Livingstone, andCe fut un bel été.
In 1983, she wrote and directedAbel Gance et son Napoleon. This film was selected for the 1984Cannes Film Festival, official selection "Un Certain Regard."
In 1984 she co-wrote the script forRegard dans un miroir, directed by Jean Chapot (Grand Prize of the Foundation of France).
In 1985 she directedPattes de velours, which originated from an original script co-written with Jean Chapot. Pierre Arditi, Michel Bouquet, Bernadette Lafont, Caroline Sihol, and Roger Carrel were the performers.
In 1988, a new extended version of her collectionLe Réservoir des sens was published by the J.J. Pauvert Publishing House.
In 1990, she co-wrote the TV movieLes Mouettes with Jean Chapot, who also directed it. It had the highest audience in France for a TV movie.
In 1990-1991, she wrote and directedPlaisir d'amour with Pierre Arditi,Francoise Fabian, Dominique Blanc, Heinz Bennent, and Pierre Dux. This movie, whose script was written in collaboration with Jean Chapot, was produced by Claude Makovski through Cythère Films.
As a co-writer of the script for Jean Chapot's TV movieHonorin et la Lorelei, they achieved a new record audience level in November 1992. The movie scored 4 nominations at the 7 d'or festival.
In 1992, she co-wrote the script forPolly West est de retour with Jean Chapot, who also directed it.
In 1993, she co-wrote the fourth installment of the "saga" ofSaint Apollonia with Jean Chapot,Honorin et l'enfant prodigue, directed by Chapot.
In 1994, she wrote, at the request of theBritish Film Institute for their collection BFI Classics, an essay on the filmNapoléon by Abel Gance.
In April 1995, a new edition ofRéservoir des sens, followed byLa Gardienne du temps were released through the Castor Astral publishing house.
In 1996 she was made Chevalier dans l'Ordre National de la Légion d'Honneur.[1]
1997 saw the release of Georges Sebbag's book,Le Point sublime: Breton/Rimbaud/Kaplan (Jean-Michel Place). In February of the same year, the Lumière Institute in Lyon dedicated a homage to her, with a screening of her films.
At the end of 1997 and beginning of 1998, Kaplan wrote for and with Jean Chapot the script for the TV movieLa Petite fille en costume marin, broadcast byFrance 2.
March 1998 saw the publication of her novelAux Orchidées sauvages, published by Différence. In November 1998, her novelUn Manteau de fou-rire was released by Différence.
In 1999, the Film Library of Toulouse and the School of Beaux-Arts paid homage to her literary and film repertoire.
In February 2000, the Film Library of Lausanne organized a retrospective of her repertoire of films up to that point.
In June 2000, the "Cahiers Philippe Soupault No. 3" published a very long interview with Kaplan, as well as different excerpts of her literary and film works.
In 2002, her novelIls furent une étrange comète was published by Castor Astral. In September of that year, the Balzac cinema in Paris held a program entitled "Kaplan dans tous ses états," a festival of her principal films. This festival would be followed by a national broadcast. On the same date, her biography,Nelly Kaplan, portrait d'une flibustière, by Denys-Louis Colaux, was published by Dreamland. In December, the University of Paris 8 organized a colloquium around her literary and film work:Nelly Kaplan, le verbe et la lumière. The texts of this colloquium were published by L'Harmattan in June 2003.
At the end of 2004, a six DVD set was released by Opening, containing a large number of her film works. (In 2007, this set was re-released under the titleLes Films de ma vie/The Films of My Life.)
In January 2005 her novelCuisses de grenouille was released by Maren Sell, for which Kaplan prepared a film adaptation.
In May 2008, the bookMon Cygne, mon signe, chronicling her correspondence with Abel Gance, was published, followed by her novelEt Pandore en avait deux !, published by Rocher.
In May 2009, her correspondence with the writerAndré Pieyre de Mandiargues, under the titleEcris-moi tes hauts faits et tes crimes, was published by Tallandier.
Antle, Martine (2003). "Dedans et dehors: Le Cas de Nelly Kaplan et d'Abel Gance".Mélusine.23:87–95.
Béhar, Stella. "L'Ecriture surréaliste de Nelly Kaplan."La Femme s'entête: La Part du féminin dans le surréalisme. Paris, France: Lachenal & Ritter, 1998. 275-289.
Calle-Gruber, Mireille.Nelly Kaplan : la verbe et la lumière. Paris: L'Harmattan, 2004.
Colaux, Denis-Louis.Grandes machines et spéculations introspectives. Bruxelles: Labor, 2003.
Colaux, Denis-Louis.Nelly Kaplan : portrait d'une flibustière. Paris: Dreamland, 2002.
Duby, Georges, and Michelle Perrot.History of Women in the West Vol. 5 : Toward a Cultural Identity in the Twentieth Century. Ed.Françoise Thébaud. New York: Belknap P, 1994.
Elley, Derek. “Hiding it Under a Bushel”,Films and Filming, 20.4 (1974): 22-5
Johnston, Claire. “Women’s cinema as counter cinema”.Notes on Women’s Cinema. London: Society for Education in Film and Television, 1973. 25; reprinted in Bill Nichols ed.,Movies and Methods: an Anthology. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975. 210.
Kay, Karin. “The Revenge of Pirate Jenny.”Velvet Light Trap 9 (Summer 1973): 46-9.
Lejeune, Paula.Le cinéma des femmes. Paris: Atlas Lherminier, 1987.
Mandiargues, Andre Pieyre de. “Nelly Kaplan”,Obliques 14-15 (1973), p. 70.
Rosen, Marjorie. “Women, Sex and Power”,Millimeter, vol. 4 (January 1976): 36-37.
Sebbag, Georges.Le point sublime : André Breton, Arthur Rimbaud, Nelly Kaplan. Paris: Jean-Michel Place, 1997.
Vincendeau, Ginette. "Fathers and Daughters in French Cinema: From the 20s to 'La Belle Noiseuse."Women and Film: A Sight and Sound Reader, edited by Pam Cook and Phillip Dodd, Philadelphia, 1993
Waldman, Diane. “The Eternal Return of Circe.”Velvet Light Trap, no. 9 (Summer 1973): 49-51.
