Dimitri Kirsanoff

Dimitri Kirsanoff (French: Dimitri Kirsanov) was an early réalisateur de film, considered part of the French Impressionist movement in film. He is known for his inexpensively made experimental films. Kirsanoff was born Markus David Sussmanovitch Kaplan in Tartu (then Juryev), Estonia, then Russian Empire in 1899. In the early les années 1920 he moved to Paris and became involved in cinema through playing cello in the orchestra at showings. He began making films on his own, and never worked with a production company. Kirsanoff was at the forefront of Parisian d'avant-garde, filmmaking thanks to works such as Ménilmontant (1926), which combined soviet style de montage with hand-held camerawork and lyrically composed static shots. Kirsanoff's early silent films, many tenant le premier rôle his first wife Nadia Sibirskaia, are considered his best works. With the coming of the sound quality of his output declined, though he continued to direct commercial ventures into the 1950's. He was married to the actrice Nadia Sibirskaïa who starred in several of his early films. His second marriage was to editor Monique Kirsanoff.