Encyclopedia of French Film Directors

794 • PANSARD-BESSON, ROBERT
Filmography
1961 Octobre à Paris (documentary)
PANSARD-BESSON, ROBERT (1950, Paris,
France–)
After completing his secondary studies and receiving
his high school diploma, he entered the INSAS,
the Brussels fi lm school. A fi lm editor at the ORTF
(French TV) and then a production manager at the
ORTF service research, he became a fi rst assistant
director (1976 Des Journées entières dans les Arbres
/ UK: Entire Days Among the Trees, Marguerite Duras;
1977 Baxter, Véra Baxter, Marguerite Duras) and co–
executive producer (1984 Les Enfants, Marguerite
Duras). He also authored an opera libretto (Gambara,
music by Antoine Duhamel).
Filmography
1970 A . . . (short; also screenwriter)
1972 La vera Istoria (short; also screenwriter)
1973 L’Histoire fabuleuse (short; also screenwriter)
1974 Un Jour peut-être . . . (short; also screenwriter)
1977 Le Conseiller Crespel (short; also screenwriter)
1978 Leçon de Chant (short)
1982 Le Rose et le Blanc (also co-screenwriter, codialogist;
shot in 1978)
2000 Le Vaisseau du Gardon (short; also screenwriter)
2001 Bernard Baudel (documentary; short)
Television Filmography
1991 Tours du Monde, Tours du Ciel (10 52': episodes
“Le Commencement,” “Autour de l’An
Zéro,” “De L’Autre Côté du Monde,” “Tour
de la terre,” “Tour du Ciel,” “Rome-Venise-
Pékin-Paris,” “Est-Ouest,” “Le Messager astral:
La Lumière,” “Le Visible et ce qui ne l’est pas,”
“Vers les Miroirs géants,” “Les Lumières et
d’autres Messagers”; shot in 1986–1990)
1996 Michel Serres / Sorbonne (documentary)
1997 La Légende des Sciences (12 52': episodes
“Prévoir,” “Découvrir,” “Guérir,” “Vivre,”
“Devenir,” “Lire,” “Brûler,” “Ouvrir,” “Mêler,”
“Métisser,” “Emerger,” “Naître”; shot in 1991–
1997)
2002 Hassan Fathi (documentary)
2003 L’Algérie des Orientalistes (documentary)
2004 Pharaon (documentary)
Terres d’Islam (documentary)
PANSINI, ROSE (Marie-Rose Lacau / June 7,
1880, Orthez, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France–March
23, 1985, Paris, France)
Born into a modest family, she became a famous
dancer. Spotted by an Italian producer, she made her
fi lm debut as an actress in Rome under the pseudonym
of Frassita Lacau (1916 Zingari, Mario Gargiulo,
Ubaldo Maria del Colli, Italy; L’Aquila, Mario Gargiulo,
Italy). She married a Milanese lawyer, Gustavo Pansini,
who created for her a fi lm production company,
Flegrea Films. Having returned to France after World
War II, she settled in Nice and founded the Saint-
Laurent du Var studios and then a second production
society with her husband, Les Films Pansini, for which
she fi lmed several movies. In 1922, she gave up her
directing career to dedicate herself to the education
of her two daughters.
Filmography
1921 La Puissance du Hasard
Chantelouve (co-director with Georges Monca;
also producer)
Un Drame d’Amour
1922 Le Sang des Finoël (co-director with Georges
Monca; also screenwriter, adapter, producer)
Judith (co-director with Georges Monca; also
producer)
Esclave (co-director with Georges Monca;
also producer)
Le Refuge (co-director with Georges Monca)
PAPATAKIS, NIKOS (July 19, 1918, Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia–)
Born to a Greek father and an Abyssinian mother,
he fought against the Italian fascists in Ethopia. After
living in Lebanon and Greece, he settled in Paris in
1939. In 1947, he created one of the most famous Parisian
cabarets, La Rose Rouge, and ran it until 1954.
He entered fi lms, producing Jean Genet’s short Un
Chant d’Amour / USA: A Song of Love, in 1950. In 1957,
he moved to New York, where he met John Cassavetes
and co-produced the American actor’s fi rst
movie (1959 Shadows). Having returned to France, he
directed his fi rst feature fi lm, an adaptation of Jean
Genet’s play Les Bonnes (Les Abysses). He co-wrote a
TV movie (1980 Une Page d’Amour, Elie Chouraqui)
and a motion picture (1981 Courts-Circuits, Patrick
Grandperret), and appeared as himself in a documentary
(1995 Nico Icon, documentary, Susan Ofteringer,