Nicolas Gessner

Nation-hopping director and writer Nicolas Gessner is known for making movies in various European countries, in several different languages, and with eclectic international casts. He made his directorial debut in 1965 with the comical crime caper "Un Milliard dans un Billard," followed several years later by another lighthearted comedy, "12 + 1," about a man searching for secret documents hidden in a chair (a gruesome aside: "12 + 1" would be American actress Sharon Tate's last film before her infamous murder by the Manson family). But by the 1970s, the mood of Gessner's films had become much darker. In 1971, he directed the psychological thriller "Someone Behind the Door," starring Anthony Perkins and Charles Bronson, for which he also wrote the screenplay, and after that, in 1976, he directed the disturbing horror mystery "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane," starring Jodie Foster and Martin Sheen. Since the 1980s, Gessner's focus has shifted to directing and writing for television; his work includes the French miniseries "Le Château des Oliviers," about an ex-antique dealer who fights to save her parents' estate from profit-driven developers, as well as the French TV movie "Chèques en Boîte" and the German TV movie "Das Andere Leben."