While the film industry concentrates virtually all of its attention on those who make the films – directors, actors, producers – the infrastructure behind the production process is crucial to the success of a movie. Well-known to insiders but virtually unknown to the public at large, Pierre Rissient is one of the most intriguing of the figures who work behind the scenes. His close friend Todd McCarthy, chief film critic of Variety, has mobilized his innumerable industry contacts to make an affectionate portrait of Rissient, a cinephile of obsessive dimensions who has had a considerable impact on the lives of many a young filmmaker. Rissient started his career as a critic and cinema programmer in the early Fifties, served as assistant director on Godard’s revolutionary À bout de souffle, then became one of the most famous film publicists in France. With Bertrand Tavernier, he formed a company that ferociously fought to create space for films in which the two passionately believed. In the eyes of Rissient and Tavernier, it was not enough to love a film; you had to love it for the right reasons. Soon, Tavernier moved effortlessly into the role of filmmaker, while Rissient directed two non-commercial films (one of which the Festival of Festivals selected in 1982; when the Ontario Censor Board demanded cuts, the film was not screened) before shifting his focus to uncovering new talent. Scouting for the Cannes Film Festival, he became linked to directors such as Eastwood, Pollack, Kiarostami, Campion, Tarantino and, in particular, the Asian masters Hou Hsiao-hsien, Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou. Wonderful anecdotes from many of these luminaries abound in the film, as well as tales of Rissient’s friendships and fights with Fritz Lang, Joseph Losey and Mike Leigh, while carefully selected archival footage evokes the spirit of this rich period in the history of cinema.

Rissient remains an enigma to all of us who know him, but there is no more passionate defender of the cinema than this roguish jack-of-many-trades. With Man of Cinema: Pierre Rissient, McCarthy has done a magnificent job of interweaving the strands of this man’s complex life to shine a spotlight on one of the cinema’s most important behind-the-scenes figures.

Piers Handling