Rossif was born in Cetinje, Montenegro, former Yugoslavia. His family was killed during the Second World War. He studied in Rome in late 1930s and early 1940s before joining the French Foreign Legion's 13th Demi-Brigade in 1944. After the war, in 1945 Rossif established himself in Paris and worked at Club Saint-Germain. During those years he got acquainted with Jean-Paul Sartre, Boris Vian, Albert Camus, Ernest Hemingway and Malcolm Lowry among others. Since 1948 Rossif actively collaborated with the Cinémathèque Française, organizing, among other things, an avant-garde festival at Antibes in 1949–50. In 1952 he joined the ORTF. Some of the first projects he participated in include Cinq colonnes à la une, Éditions spéciales, La Vie des animaux and François Chalais' Cinépanorama ; La Villa Santo-Sospir, a documentary about a villa decorated by Jean Cocteau and Si Versailles m'était conté, in which he acted. In late 1950s Rossif began writing and directing his own films, quickly achieving a considerable degree of success. His 1963 film Mourir a Madrid about the Spanish Civil War received the Prix Jean Vigo that year and was also nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Feature. Several of his 1960s films were scored by the celebrated French composer Maurice Jarre. In 1970 Rossif completed his only non-documentary film, Aussi loin que l'amour, featuring Salvador Dalí as one of the actors.
In early 1970s Rossif met the Greek composer Vangelis, who was working in Paris at the time. The two collaborated on a large number of films, most notably the wild-life documentaries L'Apocalypse des animaux, L'Opéra sauvage and La Fête sauvage, some of the music from which was released on CD. Vangelis' music for an ocean scene from the 6th episode of L'Apocalypse, called "La Petite Fille de la Mer", subsequently became a modern classic. In 1980 Rossif directed a documentary dedicated to Vangelis, called L'Arbre de vie. Rossif died in 1990 and was buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris. His last projects included the monumental World War II documentary De Nuremberg à Nuremberg and Pasteur le Siècle, a documentary commemorating the 100th anniversary of L'Institut Pasteur, a departure from the director's usual themes.
1969, Pourquoi l'Amérique?, on American history from 1917 to 1939
1971, Aussi loin que l'amour
1976, Les Crèches du monde
1976, Plus vite que le soleil, on the Concorde. Later released as part of Un Ciel Signé Concorde **
1978, Heureux comme le regard en France, on contemporary French art, see
1980, Une prière qui danse
1981, L'Arbre de vie, about Vangelis**
1983, Pour la musique
1987, Pasteur le Siècle, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Pasteur Institute**
1989, De Nuremberg à Nuremberg, on Nazism, World War II and the Nuremberg Trials**
1989, Tatie Danielle
1990, Les Sentinelles oubliées, on American communists, see **
In the list, * denotes films scored by Maurice Jarre, and ** denotes films scored by Vangelis. Many of Vangelis' works created for Rossif are used more than in one film.
