Encyclopedia of French Film Directors

364 • EPP, LIONEL
1996 Saint-Exupéry: La Dernière Mission (also coscreenwriter,
co-adapter; shot in 1993)
EPP, LIONEL (May 9, 1960, France–)
He managed his musical studies and sociology degree
at the same time. After being an assistant director
for several TV shows (including Les Guignols de l’Info),
he directed several dance videos for modern dance
companies and some docu-fi ctions on music and
dance for the French cultural TV channel Arte. A
professional reader of screenplays for two TV channels
(France 3 and Canal Plus), he used a pseudonym
to direct his fi rst short before going back to his Alsatian
grandmother’s name of Epp. He also directed
several commercials.
Filmography
1994 Le Temps des Cerises (short; as Lionel Boncompagni;
also screenwriter, dialogist)
1996 Une Belle Nuit de Fête (short; also screenwriter,
dialogist)
2003 En Territoire indien (also screenwriter, dialogist)
Television Filmography
2004 Vous êtes de la Région? (also screenwriter,
dialogist)
EPSTEIN, JEAN (March 26, 1897, Warsaw, Poland–April
1, 1953, Paris, France)
The son of a French-Jewish father and a Polish
mother, he left Warsaw in 1903 with his mother and
sister after his father died. He was a schoolboy in
Lausanne, Switzerland, until the start of new school
year of 1909, when he went to a private school, la
Villa Saint-Jean. After attending “math-élem.” classes
until 1915, he chose to go to Lyon (where his father
had lived). In 1916, he opted fi rst to study for entrance
to the Ecole Centrale before branching off into
natural sciences and medicine. A nonresident student
at Lyon General Hospital, he met Auguste Lumière
and became his secretary. Passionately interested in
literature and poetry, he founded in December 1920
a review, Promenoir, and obtained texts from writer
Blaise Cendrars, fi lmmaker Auguste Lumière, and
painter Fernand Léger. Blaise Cendrars (who worked
at the time as an assistant director to Abel Gance)
introduced him to publisher Paul Laffi tte, the former
founder of the Film d’Art in 1908 and the creator and
owner of the Editions de la Sirène. In 1920, Laffi tte
published his fi rst book, La Poésie d’aujourd’hui, un
nouvel état de l’Intelligence (with a preface by Blaise
Cendrars), who was praised by fi lm theoreticians
Louis Moussinac and Louis Delluc. In 1921, Laffi te
hired him as a secretary, and Delluc asked him to
write articles in his review Cinéa and to be his assistant
on the movie Le Tonnerre. The same year,
he published another essay, Bonjour Cinéma, which
strengthened his reputation of being “the fi rst fi lm
theoretician in the world,” according to the words
of fi lm historian (and theoretician) Jean Mitry. He directed
his fi rst fi lm in 1922. Thanks to his books and
his most interesting fi lms, his name remains linked
to the avant-garde. Other books: 1922 La Lyrisophie
(poetry; Editions La Sirène); 1926 Le Cinématographe
vu de l’Etna (essay; Les Ecrivains réunis); 1932 L’Or
des Mers (novel; Editions Valois); 1935 Les Recteurs
et la Sirène (novel; Editions Montaigne); Photogénie
de l’Impondérable (essay; Editions Corymbe); 1947
L’Intelligence d’une Machine (essay; Editions Jacques
Melot); 1948 Le Cinéma du Diable (essay; Jacques
Melot); 1955 Esprit de Cinéma (Editions Jeheber).
Filmography
1922 Les Vendanges (documentary; short)
1923 Pasteur
L’Auberge rouge / USA: The Red Inn (also
screenwriter, adapter)
Coeur fi dèle (also co-screenwriter)
La Montagne infi dèle (documentary; short)
1924 La Belle Nivernaise / USA: The Beauty From Nivernais
(also screenwriter, adapter, editor)
La Goutte de Sang / Du Sang dans les Ténèbres
(Jean Epstein started to shoot this fi lm, and it
was fi nished by Maurice Mariaud)
Le Lion des Mogols (also screenwriter, adapter,
editor)
1925 L’Affi che / USA: The Poster (also co-screenwriter)
Le Double Amour
Les Aventures de Robert Macaire / USA: The
Adventures of Robert Macaire (fi ve-episode
serial)
Photogénies (documentary short)
1927 Mauprat (also screenwriter, adapter, producer)
Au Pays de George Sand (documentary; short;
also producer)
Six et demi, onze (also producer)
La Glace à trois Faces (also screenwriter,
adapter, producer)