Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (/ruːˈsoʊ/;French: [ʒɑ̃ʒak ʁuso]; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th century. His political philosophy influenced the Enlightenment in France and across Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the overall development of modern political and educational thought.

Rousseau's novel Emile, or On Education is a treatise on the education of the whole person for citizenship. His sentimental novel Julie, or the New Heloise was of importance to the development of pre-romanticism and romanticism in fiction. Rousseau's autobiographical writings — his Confessions, which initiated the modern autobiography, and his Reveries of a Solitary Walker — exemplified the late 18th-century movement known as the Age of Sensibility, and featured an increased focus on subjectivity and introspection that later characterized modern writing. His Discourse on Inequality and The Social Contract are cornerstones in modern political and social thought.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (director)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (16 December 1946 – 5 November 2014) was a Belgian absurdist film director. He was born in Souvret (Courcelles) after the Second World War. He defended "popular" cinema, filming with very small budgets (€2000 to 2500 per film), and using unknown or non-professional actors. He called himself the director of the absurd.

His life was supposed to be the subject of a Yann Moix film, called Palme d'or, starring Benoît Poelvoorde. The project was not filmed, Moix did make, without Poelvoorde, the disastrous Cinéman.

Overview

Rousseau's first few films were fairly conventional examples of the fantasy genre. However, some of them won regional awards in the 1970s (people's choice, best screenplay), promising a bright future for the 20-year-old filmmaker.

A semi-permanent lack of financial resources prevented him from making technically accomplished films. However, he financed, edited, directed and acted in most of them.

Having a fertile imagination fueled by esoteric tastes in books, his films shunned the mainstream more and more, thus becoming marginalized. He never received subsidies to finance his films. Patrick Moriau, a Belgian politician, once said "If one asked me to allocate part of the Walloon Community's finances to the Committee for Film Selection, the money would undoubtedly never go into Rousseau's pockets. He may be a kind man, but his films are frankly wild and scare people."