Frederic Rossif French documentarian Date of Birth: 16.02.1922 Country: France

Biography of Frederic Rossif

Frederic Rossif was born in 1922 in Cetinje, Montenegro. His family perished during the Second World War. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Frederic studied in Rome, and later in 1944, he joined the French Foreign Legion. After the war, in 1945, Rossif settled in Paris and began working at the 'Club Saint-Germain'. It was during this time that he met many writers and cultural figures in the city, including Jean-Paul Sartre, Boris Vian, Albert Camus, Ernest Hemingway, Malcolm Lowry, and others.

In 1948, Rossif started collaborating with the Cinémathèque Française and even organized a festival in Antibes in 1949-1950. In 1952, he joined the Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF). By the end of the 1950s, Rossif began creating his own films, and in 1963, he released 'Mourir à Madrid', a documentary about the Spanish Civil War. The film was awarded the Prix Jean Vigo and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

In the 1960s, several of Rossif's films featured music by the renowned French composer Maurice Jarre, including 'Les animaux' and 'Pour l'Espagne'. In 1971, his drama film 'Aussi loin que l'amour' was released, which starred Salvador Dalí among other actors.

In the early 1970s, Frederic Rossif collaborated with Greek composer Vangelis, who was working in Paris at the time. Their collaboration resulted in the inclusion of Vangelis' music in several of Rossif's documentaries, such as 'L'apocalypse des animaux', 'L'Opéra sauvage', and 'La Fête sauvage'. Some of Vangelis' compositions featured in Rossif's films were later released on a separate compact disc. Vangelis' music for the sea scene in the sixth episode of 'L'Opéra sauvage' titled 'La Petite Fille De La Mer' became a contemporary classic.

In 1980, Rossif created a documentary film dedicated to Vangelis, titled 'L'Arbre de vie'. Frederic Rossif passed away on April 18, 1990, and was buried at the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris.

Throughout his career, Frederic Rossif directed over thirty films, mostly documentaries, and wrote around twenty screenplays. He also appeared as an actor in several productions. His final projects included the film 'De Nuremberg à Nuremberg' (1989), part of a monumental cycle about World War II, and the documentary 'Pasteur le Siecle' (1987), dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Pasteur Institute.