Cozarinsky, Edgardo 1939-

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COZARINSKY, Edgardo 1939-

PERSONAL: Born January 13, 1939, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

ADDRESSES: Home—Paris, France. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Harvill Press, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Rd., London SW1V 2SA, England.

CAREER: Director of films, including Puntos suspensivos o Esperando a los bárbaros, 1971; Les apprentis sorciers, 1977; One Man's War, 1982; Haute mer, 1984; Jean Cocteau: Autobiography of an Unknown, 1985; Boulevards du crépuscule, 1992; Citizen Langlois, 1994; Guerriers et captives (also known as Warriors and Prisoners), 1994; Le violon de Rothschild (also known as Rothschild's Violin), 1996; Fantômes de Tanger, 1988; Le Cinéma des cahiers, 2001; Tango deseo, 2002; Dans le rouge du couchant (also known as Sunset Boulevard), 2003; and Ronda nocturna (also known as Red Sunset), 2004. Director of films for television, including Sara, 1988; and Chaplin Today: Limelight, 2002. Actor in films, including Like a Turtle on Its Back, 1978; and International, 1988.

WRITINGS:

El laberinto de la apariencia; estudios sobre Henry James, Editorial Losada (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 1964.

(Editor and author of introduction) Silvina Ocampo, Informe del cielo y del infierno: Antología, Monte Avila Editores (Caracas, Venezuela), 1970.

Borges y el cine, Sur (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 1974, revised edition published as Borges en/y/sobre cine, Editorial Fundamentos (Madrid, Spain), 1981, translation by Gloria Waldman and Ronald Christ published as Borges in/and/on Film, Lumen Books (New York, NY), 1988, published as Borges y el cinematógrafo, Emecé Editores (Barcelona, Spain), 2002.

(With others) La casa de la ficción, Editorial Fundamentos, (Madrid, Spain), 1977.

Vudú urbano, Editorial Anagrama (Barcelona, Spain), 1985, translation published as Urban Voodoo, 1991.

El pase del testigo, Editorial Sudamericana (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 2000.

La novia de Odessa, Emecé Editores (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 2001, translation by Nick Caistor published as The Bride from Odessa, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2004.

El rufián moldavo, Emecé Editores (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 2004.

Author and coauthor of screenplays, including Dot Dot Dot; or, Waiting for the Barbarians, 1971, Jean Cocteau: Autobiography of an Unknown, 1983, Citizen Langlois, 1994, Guerriers et captives, 1994, Le violon de Rothschild, 1996, Fantômes de Tanger, 1998, Le cinéma des cahiers, 2001, Tango deseo, 2002, Dans le rouge du couchant, 2003, Quimera de los héroes, 2003, and Ronda nocturna, 2004. Contributor to CIVIL warS.

SIDELIGHTS: Edgardo Cozarinsky is a filmmaker and writer whose work often blurs the boundaries between documentary, fiction, and criticism. One of his best-known films, La guerre d'un seul homme (One Man's War,) uses documentary materials such as newsreels and authentic diary passages, yet is essentially a film that is "somewhere between essay and fiction," according to Film Comment writer Jonathan Rosenbaum. The critic went on to compare One Man's War to one of Cozarinsky's books, Urban Voodoo, which "consists of semiautobiographical narratives interspersed with quotations by other writers, and might be said to breathe in a similarly ambiguous netherworld."

Cozarinksy was born in Argentina and made his first film there in 1971. It was an experimental piece called Dot Dot Dot; or, Waiting for the Barbarians. Due to political unrest in Argentina, Cozarinsky left the country and took up residence in Paris in 1974. He continued to maintain a home there even when the political situation in his native country became more favorable and he was able to return, some twenty years later. Themes of exile and displacement mark much of his work, and are particularly notable in the films Guerriers et captives and Ronda nocturna. Both portray the emigration of French citizens to Argentina, in a reversal of Cozarinsky's own history.

Displacement is also a theme in Cozarinsky's short story collection, The Bride from Odessa. In the title story, a man and a woman meet as they await passage from Eastern Europe to Argentina. The man was waiting for a fiancée who did not want to come with him; at the last minute, he embarks with someone else, who has begged for his protection. In the final story, "Emigre Hotel," a man learns more than he wants to know when he investigates his family's tangled history. As a whole, the collection dwells on the legacy of World War II and the exiles it triggered, providing "a rich texture of loss and longing," according to a Kirkus Reviews contributor, who rated the first and last stories in the book to be "masterpieces." Library Journal reviewer Edward Cone wrote that these tales of exile "exist more in the realm of nostalgia than of real life," Brad Hooper, writing for Booklist, described the characters in The Bride from Odessa as "subtly constructed, eventually demonstrating strong emotional constitutions." Hooper added that the stories have a "beguiling sensuality."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, August, 2004, Brad Hooper, review of The Bride from Odessa, p. 1897; January 1, 2005, review of The Bride from Odessa, p. 769.

Cineaste, summer, 1993, Morty Schiff, review of Jean Cocteau: Autobiography of an Unknown, p. 60.

Film Comment, September-October, 1995, Jonathan Rosenbaum, review of Cinema Indirect, p. 36, review of Citizen Langlois, p. 43.

Journal of Popular Film and Television, summer, 1992, Rick DeCroix, review of Jean Cocteau, Autobiography of an Unknown, p. 36.

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2004, review of The Bride from Odessa, p. 591.

Library Journal, September 1, 2004, Edward Cone, review of The Bride from Odessa, p. 144.

Publishers Weekly, February 15, 1991, Penny Kaganoff, review of Urban Voodoo, p. 86.

Time, May 21, 1984, review of CIVIL warS, p. 85.

Variety, November 17, 2003, Deborah Young, review of Dans le rouge du couchant, p. 42; May 16, 2005, Jonathan Holland, review of Ronda nocturna, p. 46.