About

Known credits:
64
Birthday:
1947-10-12
Place of birth:
Soisy-sous-Montmorency, Val d'Oise, France
Website:
Click here

Michel Nedjar

Overview

Master of Art Brut, Michel Nedjar was born in 1947 in the Val d'Oise to a Jewish family marked by war and the holocaust. His father, born in Algiers, settled in Paris in 1921 as a tailor. At home, he tinkered on a sewing machine doll clothes for his sisters. During the Second World War, a large part of his family fell victim to Nazi oppression.

In 1960, he became aware of the magnitude of the Holocaust. At the age of fourteen, he enrolled in a vocational school to become a tailor and sells jeans with his flea grandfather from Saint-Ouen and accompanies his grandmother to the scrap fair; she makes him share his love for Shmattès (the worn cloth) that she picks up and stacks. In the spring of 1967, he left for military service. With tuberculosis and declared disabled in 1968, he spent a few months in a school of fashion stylist. He is upset by the vision of 'Night and Fog' by Alain Resnais, echoing his own disappearances in his family.

In the years 1970-1975, he left with Teo Hernandez. His travels take him to Morocco, Asia Minor, Europe and Mexico. He discovers cultures rich in symbolic expressions. He begins to take an interest in the funeral art and the dolls whose magic function fascinates him. Returning to Paris in 1976, he began making his first dolls called "Chairdâmes" with rags that he gleaned in the neighborhood of the Goutte d'Or, then made dolls dyed. In 1978, a period of depression transformed his style: his dolls look like gargoyles and terrifying totems, they are sometimes soiled with dirt and even blood. It was in 1980 that he began to draw with grease pencils on recovered flea media.

He made his first films in 8 mm from 1964 during his holidays in Greece or the Balearic Islands. Like Lionel Soukaz, he is one of the first French experimental filmmakers to address the theme of homosexuality (Le gant de l'autre, 1977). His practice will evolve towards a more formal exploration of the characteristics of cinema: luminous calligraphies (Gestuel, 1978), grain of the film (Le grain de la peau, 1986); either to direct cinema (Monsieur Loulou, 1980). These research finds their paroxysm in Capitale-paysage (1982-83), mixing snatches of conversations, work of concrete sound and rhythm, and kaleidoscopic effects.

Known for

Acting
2016 Dolls of Darkness: The Art of Michel Nedjar Actor Self N/A
N/A
1991 Madrid, Quelques Images Actor N/A
N/A
1989 Le chant de l'âme Actor N/A
N/A
1987 Fragments Actor N/A
N/A
1986 Robillard André, Nedjar Michel Actor N/A
N/A
1984 Chutes de Michel Nedjar Actor Himself N/A
N/A
1984 Mesures de miel et de lait sauvage Actor N/A
N/A
1983 Bouquet of Eyes Actor N/A
N/A
1983 Souvenirs/Rouen Actor Himself N/A
N/A
1983 4 à 4 Métro-Barbès-Rochechou-Art Actor 59
Average
1981 Sur Graal de T.H. Actor 59
Average
1981 Sara Actor N/A
N/A
1981 Chutes de Pascal Actor Himself N/A
N/A
1980 Graal Actor 59
Average
1980 Lacrima Christi Actor 59
Average
1979 Hors-jeu Actor N/A
N/A
1978 Cristaux Actor 59
Average
1978 Cinématon Actor N°27 58
Average
1978 Cinématon n°27 : Michel Nedjar Actor N/A
N/A
1978 Cinématon III Actor N°27 N/A
N/A
1978 Michel Nedjar Actor Self N/A
N/A
1978 J'aime Actor Himself N/A
N/A
1977 Esmeralda Actor N/A
N/A
1977 Cristo Actor 59
Average
1976 Salomé Actor 58
Average
1970 Pause Actor N/A
N/A
1970 Michel Over There Actor N/A
N/A
Portraits / Mirrors Actor N/A
N/A

Directing
2003 Black room révélée Directing Director N/A
N/A
2003 Black Room Revealed Directing Director N/A
N/A
2001 Bouche D'Oeil Directing Director N/A
N/A
1990 Plus Venise Directing Director N/A
N/A
1986 Le grain de la peau / Streap tease Directing Director N/A
N/A
1985 Une journée avec les Cantrill Directing Director N/A
N/A
1985 Une journée avec Pascal Martin et André Robillard Directing Director N/A
N/A
1985 Chantilly/Sarah (journal septembre 85) Directing Director N/A
N/A
1985 Journal de Michel Nedjar (août 85) Directing Director N/A
N/A
1983 Bouquet of Eyes Directing Director N/A
N/A
1983 Chutes de 4 à 4 Métro-Barbès-Rochechou-Art Directing Director N/A
N/A
1983 Capitale-paysage Directing Director N/A
N/A
1983 4 à 4 Métro-Barbès-Rochechou-Art Directing Director 59
Average
1983 Signaux lumineux pour un ballet nuptial Directing Director N/A
N/A
1983 Diaph limite 1,2 Posture d'exil Directing Director N/A
N/A
1982 Chutes de Capitale-paysage Directing Director N/A
N/A
1982 À quoi rêve l'araignée ? Directing Director N/A
N/A
1981 Monsieur Loulou Directing Director N/A
N/A
1981 Sur Graal de T.H. Directing Director 59
Average
1981 Sara/Teo Directing Director N/A
N/A
1980 Chutes de Ombres-ailes Directing Director N/A
N/A
1980 Journal à durée indéterminée Directing Director N/A
N/A
1980 Ombres-ailes Directing Director N/A
N/A
1980 Le grain de la peau Directing Director N/A
N/A
1979 Chutes de Hors-jeu Directing Director N/A
N/A
1979 Hors-jeu Directing Director N/A
N/A
1979 Ailes Directing Director N/A
N/A
1978 Gestuel Directing Director N/A
N/A
1978 Angle Directing Director N/A
N/A
1978 Teo Directing Director N/A
N/A
1977 Malik Directing Director N/A
N/A
1977 Désir Directing Director N/A
N/A
1977 La tasse Directing Director N/A
N/A
1977 Le gant de l'autre Directing Director N/A
N/A

Writing
2003 Black room révélée Writing Writer N/A
N/A

Production
1977 Cristo Production Production Assistant 59
Average