Léonard Keigel(1929-2020)

Leonard Keigel was born March 4th, 1929 in London of Russian ancestry, his stepfather Leonid owned a repertory movie theater and later co-founded the prestigious Paris film magazine, Cahiers Du Cinema; his uncle Jacques Mage was proprietor of an exploitation cinema circuit, Cinephone. Keigel started making amateur Super-16mm films at age 18 and enriched his artistic background with aesthetics courses at the Sorbonne, as part of his youthful studies. At age 21 he founded Objectif '49, a film appreciation group that attracted famous people like Astruc,Auriol, Bazin, Bresson, Cocteau, Doniol-Valcroze, Leenhardt and Queneau and a year earlier he had already started as an A.D. for Rene Clement. At age 22 he became co-owner of Cahiers and at age 24 managed the production company Les Films De L'Etoile. His filmography consists of short subjects on literature (Malraux) and jazz (Ellington) features, television programs, and from 1985 through 2000 many commercials.