Nelly Kaplan is an Argentine-bornFrench writer who focuses on the arts, film and filmmakers. She studied economics at the University of Buenos Aires. Passionate about cinema, she abruptly put her studies on holdto go to Paris to represent the new Argentine film archive at an international convention and later became a correspondent for different Argentine newspapers. She met Abel Gance in 1954, who gave her the opportunity to work on the film La tour de Nesle. She became his assistant during the film and showed the programMagirama in Polyvision, then, still at Abel Gance's side, she collaborated with him on Austerlitz. He trusted her with the direction of all the second crew's action scenes during the filming of his movie Cyrano and d'Artagnan. Meanwhile, she published her work about Magirama under the name Le Manifeste d'un art nouveau, with a preface by Philippe Soupault. In 1960, she published a film report entitled Le 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 century symbolist painter; "Rudolphe Bresdin," the engraver; "Dessins et merveilles," on the sketchbooks of Victor 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 painter André Masson.
Biography
Nelly Kaplan was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina to a Russian-Jewish family. A "neo-surrealist", she is "the only female film maker linked with surrealism". Kaplan left for France at the age of 17. She served as a professor and lecturer at Institut des Hautes Études en Arts Plastiques. While Kaplan's films have been marketed as soft-core pornography, her works are often female-centered and approach eroticism from a woman's point of view. Her films have been shown at numerous international festivals and distributed on every continent. As a member of the SACD, she has taken part in the board of directors as a member of the Cinema Commission on several occasions. Kaplan collaborates regularly on the show "Des Papous dans la Tête," on France Culture. She has assured the chronicle on cinema for 25 years in the magazine Littéraire. Kaplan is Commander of the Arts and Letters, Officer in the National Merite Order, Cavalier of the Legion of Honor, and Academician of the Alphonse Allais Academy.
Timeline
Books and movies
Fiction
Le Réservoir des Sens, nouvelles, La Jeune Parque, 1966; rééd. J-J.Pauvert, 1988; rééd. augmentée Le Castor Astral, 1995.
Le Collier de Ptyx, ciné-roman, J-J.Pauvert, 1971.
Mémoires d'une liseuse de draps, roman, J-J.Pauvert, 1974.
Aux Orchidées sauvages, roman, La Différence, 1998.
Un manteau de fou rire, roman, La Différence, 1998.
Ils furent une étrange comète, roman, Le Castor Astral, 2002.
Cuisses de Grenouille, roman, Maren Sell Editeurs, 2005
Et Pandore en avait deux..! followed by Mon Cygne, mon Signe, Editions du Rocher, 2008
Ecris-moi tes hauts faits et tes crimes… Correspondance avec André Pieyre de Mandiargues, Editions du Rocher, 2009
Essays on cinema
Manifeste d'un art nouveau: la Polyvision, Caractères, 1955.
Le Sunlight d'Austerlitz, journal d'un tournage, Plon, 1960.
Script writer with Jean Chapot pour France 2 of the téléfilm La petite fille en costume marin, 1997. Collaborated over 22 years to the Magazine Littéraire with a column on film adaptations from books.
