Mark Rappaport – Wikipedia

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American film director

Mark Rappaport (born January 15, 1942 in New York City, United States) is an American independent/underground film director and film critic, who has been working sporadically since the early 1970s.

Biography[edit]

Born and raised in Brighton Beach, New York, Rappaport graduated from Brooklyn College in 1964 with a B.A. in literature. In 2005, he moved to Paris, France, where he resides and works.

In May 2012, Rappaport filed a lawsuit against filmmaker Ray Carney for refusing to return digital 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 an online petition demanding that Carney return the masters.[1][2][3]

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Film career[edit]

Starting in 1966, Rappaport directed two short films and six low-budget features, most notably the Max Ophuls-influenced The Scenic Route (1978), Impostors (1979),[4] and Chain Letters (1985).

In 1992, he directed Rock Hudson’s Home Movies, a documentary on Rock Hudson’s homosexuality as seen through clips from his films. The same form was used for From the Journals of Jean Seberg (1995) and The Silver Screen : Color Me Lavender (1997) hosted by Dan Butler. Because of this work, critic Matt Zoller Seitz called Rappaport “the father of the modern video essay.”[5]

Starting in 2014, Rappaport turned to short video essays on film history, notably chronicling the careers of actors (Anita Ekberg, Marcel Dalio, Debra Paget, Chris Olsen, Conrad Veidt, Will Geer) and specific directors (Douglas Sirk, Max Ophuls, Sergei Eisenstein, Jacques Tati and Robert Bresson).

Writing career[edit]

In 1994, Rappaport started contributing to French film journal Trafic, created by Serge Daney two years earlier. Since then, he published more than 40 pieces, and several collections, including Le spectateur qui en savait trop (2008, in French) and (F)au(x)tobiographies (2013).

Recognition[edit]

Rappaport has been noted by Roger Ebert, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Ray Carney, J. Hoberman, Dave Kehr, and Stuart Klawans.[6][7][8] Ray Carney considers him the greatest contemporary American film director.[9]

Filmography[edit]

Independent films (1966–1990)
  • 1966 : Blue Frieze (short)
  • 1966 : Mur 19 (short)
  • 1967 : Friends (short)
  • 1968 : Bay of Angels (short)
  • 1968 : The Stairs (short)
  • 1969 : Persepolis (short)
  • 1970 : Chronicle (short)
  • 1971 : Fluorescent (short)
  • 1971 : Blue Streak (short)
  • 1974 : Casual Relations
  • 1975 : Mozart in Love
  • 1977 : Local Color
  • 1978 : The Scenic Route
  • 1979 : Impostors
  • 1980 : Mark Rappaport — The TV Spin-off (short)
  • 1985 : Chain Letters
  • 1990 : Postcards (short)
Found footage films (1992–2002)
Video essays (2014–Present)
  • 2014 : The Vanity Tables of Douglas Sirk (short)
  • 2014 : Becoming Anita Ekberg (short)
  • 2015 : I, Dalio (short)
  • 2015 : Our Stars (short)
  • 2015 : Max & James & Danielle… (short)
  • 2015 : The Circle Closes (short)
  • 2016 : Debra Paget, For Example (short)
  • 2016 : Tati vs. Bresson : The Gag (short)
  • 2016 : Chris Olsen – The Boy Who Cried (short)
  • 2016 : Sergei / Sir Gay (short)
  • 2017 : The Double Life of Paul Henreid (short)
  • 2017 : The Empty Screen or The Metaphysics of Movies (short)
  • 2017 : Private Screenings (short)
  • 2018 : Will Geer – America’s Grandpa (short)
  • 2019 : Conrad Veidt – My Life
  • 2019 : Anna/Nana/Nana/Anna (short)
  • 2020 : L’Année dernière à Dachau (short)
  • 2020 : The Stendhal Syndrome or My Dinner with Turhan Bey (short)
  • 2021 : Two for the Opera Box (short)
  • 2021 : Love in the Time of Corona (short)
  • 2021 : Martin und Hans (short)

References[edit]

  1. ^ Edgers, Geoff (April 7, 2013). “BU caught in middle as filmmaker, professor feud”. Boston Globe. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  2. ^ The Strange and Sad Saga of How Mark Rappaport Lost His Movies (And What He Can Do To Get Them Back)|IndieWire
  3. ^ Mark Rappaport vs. Ray Carney-Slate.com
  4. ^ Low-Budget, Independent Films, 1981 – Siskel and Ebert Movie Reviews
  5. ^ Seitz, Matt Zoller (January 29, 2016). “Medium For a Dead Person: Mark Rappaport Comes to Fandor”. RogerEbert.com. Retrieved August 10, 2021.
  6. ^ Ebert, Roger (August 14, 2013). “The Scenic Route Movie Review (1978) | Roger Ebert”. Rogerebert.suntimes.com. Retrieved August 22, 2013.
  7. ^ “The Independent Vision: Snapshots of Mark Rappaport”. People.bu.edu. Retrieved August 22, 2013.
  8. ^ “Blog Archive » Mark Rappaport [from FILM: THE FRONT LINE 1983]”. JonathanRosenbaum.net. September 20, 1983. Retrieved August 22, 2013.
  9. ^ “The Independent Vision: Disney-Wood”. People.bu.edu. Retrieved August 22, 2013.
  10. ^ Rock Hudson’s Home Movies Trailer (2003)-Video Detective
  11. ^ Mark Rappaport – Rock Hudson’s Home Movies (trailer) -REVOIRVIDEO on YouTube
  12. ^ Van Gelder, Lawrence (July 17, 1998). “FILM REVIEW; Glimpses of the Gay Life: A Hollywood Perspective”. The New York Times.

External links[edit]


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