MITRY, JEAN

(1907-1988)

Actor, director, and film historian. Jean Mitry was attracted to a career in cinema out of a sheer love of the medium. As a young man, he had attendedciné-clubs, and in 1928, he worked as an assistant director toPierre Chenal. Mitry went on to direct. His films includePacific 231(1949) andÉnigme aux Folies-Bergère(1959). He also went on to try his hand at acting, appearing in Jean Renoir'sLa Nuit du carrefour(1932), and at screen-writing, writing the dialogue for Pierre Weill'sTrois dans un moulin(1936).

Ultimately Mitry would decide that sharing his passion for the cinema was his calling. He became a professor at theInstitut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques(IDHEC) when it was founded in 1945. He also cofounded theCinémathèque FrançaisewithHenri LangloisandGeorges Franju. Perhaps Mitry's most important contribution to film, however, is his enormous film history, titledFilmographie universelle. He also published a theoretical work on the cinema, titledEsthétique et psychologie du cinéma. Mitry died in 1988.