Michel Ciment cause of death: French film critic dies at 85

French film critic and historian Michel Ciment, the long-time publishing director of film magazine Positif, has died at the age of 85.

Ciment died on 13 November 2023, his entourage confirmed on Monday evening to French radio station France Inter.

Who was Michel Ciment?

Michel Ciment was a French writer, academic, film critic, journalist and producer.

Director of publication and member of the editorial board of the journal Positif, he is also a lecturer in American civilization at the University of Paris VII-Denis-Diderot.

Born in Paris3, Michel Cement became interested in cinema at an early age and wrote his first texts on the seventh art in a small student magazine called CinémaTexte.

In 1963, he sent a text on Orson Welles Le Procès’s film to the editorial board of the journal Positif which published his article. Three years later, he joined the committee of the journal, which he eventually took over the direction of the publication.

In 1970, he joined the film crew of the radio program Le Masque et la Plume, of which he remained a member until his death.

In 1973, he published his first book, Kazan by Kazan, in which he spoke with the filmmaker.

On the same model will follow books dedicated to Francesco Rosi, Joseph Losey and also to Stanley Kubrick, of whom Michel Cement is one of the main exegetes.

In the early 1990sannées 1990, while continuing his work at Positif, he launched a new radio program, Projection privée, at France Culture, in which, from 1990 to 2016, he received one or more guests who came to discuss about a theme inspired by cinematographic news.

In 1994, he received at Cannes the first prize Maurice Bessy, rewarding “a personality exercising his activity or talent in the fields of film writing”.