Though often disregarded or ignored in movie history, Mitchell Leisen played a significant role in American film history before living in oblivion. First working successfully as a costume designer then on sets decoration for filmmakers such as Cecil B. DeMille, Allan Dwan or Raoul Walsh, Mitchell Leisen produced as a director a brilliant work -ethereal and sophisticated-, working with the most brilliant people of his times -whether writers and actors. From Hands Across the Table or Arise my Love to Easy Living or the exhilarating Midnight, Mitchell Leisen developed his talents as an actors director, an artistic supervisor, showing a precise way to direct his films and rewriting the scripts of the films he worked on, which caused him to be hated by people like Preston Sturges or Billy Wilder. But no doubt Mitchell Leisen‘s films would never have been the same without this rewriting work: they probably wouldn’t have been so light and elegant and even though he is now ignored, his films would never have been so influent in this golden age of the American film comedy. The upcoming release in France of two of his major movies (Midnight and Hands Across the Table), the tribute to his work this year at Deauville American Film Festival and the current retrospective that is showing now at the French Cinemathèque in Paris until November 2, are major opportunities to rediscover the brilliant work of a unique director.

See the programme of the Mitchell Leisen Retrospective at the French Cinemathèque in Paris.
See the programme of the Tribute to Mitchell Leisen at Deauville American Film Festival.