Jean José Marchand

Jean Jose Marchand was an important cultural critic of the contemporary French scene who made a name for himself in media by doing about 150 interviews for Tv with artists, writers, and such.Born in the 11th arrondissement of Paris on August 14th, 1920 he also died in Paris, on March 8th, 2011.During World War II, then in his twenties, he worked for four years at the Bibliotheque Nationale and began his scholarly contributions to journals, which continued after Liberation with a special focus on Surrealism.After becoming head of the film section of French television in 196O, he started his series of interviews in 1968.These consisted of simply shot conversations held in the residences or studios of say the particular artist, intercut with for instance images of specific works in progress.Marchand was also a major book collector, with his personal library of roughly 40,000 volumes a big task to sort out after his passing.