Martine Marignac was all in the films she loved and supported. Her work as a producer was primarily an act of unshakeable faith towards filmmakers like Jacques Rivette, Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Otar Iosseliani and partners like Chantal Akerman, Jean-Luc Godard, Daniel Schmid, for whom she produced two films, or Léos Carax with whom she worked on the masterful Holy Motors. Her filmography is a story of cinematic possibilities. A story of love, and cinephilia. An idea of cinema, post-New Wave, lived and made a name for itself thanks to Martine Marignac's extraordinary determination, as she watched over her directors with affection and loyalty. Every film she wanted to make was a declaration of love and resistance. She started out as a publicist, for films like Marco Ferreri's Bye Bye Monkey. That could already be viewed as a statement of intent, one she stuck to for the rest of her life. We owe so much to Martin Marignac, her passion and her determination. To her great flair and impeccable taste. The recipient of the 2009 Best Independent Producer Award, she leaves with a fundamental filmography. An oeuvre to rediscover, made under the auspices of the clearest love for cinema.
Frédéric Maire, former director of the Locarno Film Festival and head of the Cinémathèque suisse, remembers her with these words: “She could have been a perfect enigmatic figura in a film by Otar Iosseliani: seated at a table with a glass of red wine, a cigarette in her hand, watching the world without saying a word. And suddenly you'd hear her rough, deep, confident voice, the voice of someone who knows cinema of the challenging kind, the one she championed her whole life, is what matters. The rest is dust."
Au revoir, dear Martine.
Giona A. Nazzaro
