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Au Revoir to Night Gallery’s Most Prolific and Talented Auteur, Jeannot Szwarc



Jeannot on the set of one of his greatest Night Gallery segments, "The Sins of the Fathers"
Jeannot on the set of one of his greatest Night Gallery segments, "The Sins of the Fathers"

A moment of silence, please. A Night Gallery titan has passed. Jeannot Szwarc, the French-American director who helmed 22 episode segments of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, died on January 14 of respiratory failure at Central Hospital in Loches, France. He was 85.


Jeannot was far and away the most prolific director on Night Gallery, indicative of producer Jack Laird’s faith in his abilities to bring out the best in his actors and impart to each script a richly cinematic visual style.


His behind-the-camera technique was inspired, achieving multitudes in the brief time allotted him by the production schedule. Taking his cue from the material, Jeannot always found for each script he was assigned a visual approach that brought out its best properties, conveying emotion through carefully calibrated tone and atmosphere.


Among those segments he helmed include “Cool Air,” “The Little Black Bag,” “The Sins of the Fathers,” “Class of ’99,” “The Waiting Room,” “Big Surprise,” “Last Rites for a Dead Druid,” “The Return of the Sorcerer,” and the most popular episode of the series, the memorable chiller “The Caterpillar.”


“Jeannot Szwarc directed several of my favorite episodes,” observed Academy Award–winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. “Jeannot had a very wide range, and he was one of the most modern directors in the series. He was very aware of what was hip and happening at the time, like in ‘The Phantom Farmhouse,’ where he used hippie and pop aesthetics. But at the same time, he did shows like ‘The Little Black Bag’ and ‘The Caterpillar,’ which are very academically correct and beautifully staged. ‘The Caterpillar’ is gorgeous. The camera work is beautiful, and to me it remains one of the few episodes in the series that approximates film.”


“It was a very ambitious series,” commented Szwarc in a 1994 interview. “Of everything I did at Universal, Night Gallery was by far not only the most exciting thing but the only production where there was really an attempt to do something creative. God, we did interesting stuff. The material had a literary quality. When you looked at the scripts you got on other shows, my God, you’d have to work on it and work on it. Then you’d get this script from Night Gallery, and it was like reading poetry. But it proves that it’s not all money, because we certainly didn’t have the budgets and the schedules we should have. When I look back, I’m absolutely astounded at the overall quality compared to most of the stuff I see today.”





In his native France, Szwarc received a master’s degree in international political science from Hautes Études Commerciales (“a grande école with quite a repute,” says Szwarc, “the froggy equivalent of Harvard”), with a course of study leading to the diplomatic corps. His interest in theater and cinema drew him away from his studies, however, and while in college he saw an estimated 250 films a year. “I became what’s called a cinephile,” says Szwarc, “which is a guy who haunts all of the cinématiques and theatres. If you’re going to be a film buff, Paris is the best city in the world.


“I saw Carl Dreyer’s silent film, The Passion of Joan of Arc, and something happened to me. That was it. That’s where my passion for film started. And I pursued that passion after I finished normal studies. I just quit everything and started working for a documentary company in Paris. And that led me to where I am now.”


Szwarc worked on documentaries before emigrating to the United States in the 1960s. His passion to direct was thwarted by his outsider status, being a foreigner who had never attended a film school. He met Night Gallery producer Jack Laird while working as an associate producer on the last season of The Chrysler Theatre, where they forged a bond based on their mutual passion for film history, jazz music, and dark fantasy literature. Szwarc followed in the same associate capacity on Ironside before finally landing a directing job on the series. A period of freelancing came next, but he didn’t hit his stride until Night Gallery.


“Jack knew I was nuts about The Twilight Zone and Rod Serling’s work,” Szwarc says. “I loved Night Gallery, it was like home to me. I had a natural affinity for the show. In French literature at the end of the nineteenth century was a genre called fantastique. It requires great aesthetics and beauty but also a sense of atmosphere. I think that’s what I was concentrating on most of the time, to find the right atmosphere. I had a feeling for that kind of stuff, anything that was a little bit absurd or a little strange, I loved it. I think I wound up doing some of my best work on that series.”


His associates agree on that point. “He was my little fucking hero,” admitted assistant director Les Berke. “A brilliant director. I probably assisted him more than I assisted anybody in those years, and it was a real pleasure. I adored the little crud.”


Szwarc’s reputation grew with those in front of the camera as well. Says actress Joanna Pettet, “Jeannot was being touted as ‘the new boy’ at Universal. He was very young, and enigmatic, and you wanted to please him. From the actors’ point of view, he had all the qualities that a director needed: he was there for the actors, not merely concentrating on technical areas. Although I don’t remember all of the TV directors with whom I’ve worked, Jeannot is very memorable.”


Editor Larry Lester concurs: “This man really knows what he’s doing with a camera. I respect him as much as Spielberg, in that they both know how to shoot exactly what they want. Jeannot has an instinctive talent for directing.” Laird evidently agreed, pulling the necessary strings get the director out of other assignments so that he could work full-time on Night Gallery.





After the series was cancelled, Jeannot worked on other series—Columbo, Kojak, The Rockford Files—and made-for-TV movies before snagging a few theatrical assignments. His work directing Jaws 2 (he was a last-minute replacement for director John Hancock) earned him a shot at helming his dream project, an adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel Bid Time Return. Filmed under the title Somewhere in Time, the romantic fantasy has developed a passionate cult following in the years since its release, and remains to this day his best-remembered theatrical effort.


The film’s star, Jane Seymour, noted with fondness and respect the director’s passing on Instagram: “Today, we say goodbye to a true visionary. Jeannot Szwarc was not just a brilliant director but a kind and generous soul. He gifted us many timeless stories, including Somewhere in Time, a film that changed my life forever. May his memory be a blessing, and may his artistry live on in our hearts.”


Jeannot’s other film credits include Bug (1975), Enigma (1982), Supergirl (1984), and Santa Claus (1985). His long and thriving career in American episodic TV following Night Gallery include 19 episodes of JAG, 18 of The Practice, 14 of Smallville, 12 of Without a Trace, 15 of Bones, and 15 of Grey’s Anatomy. He also worked on Ally McBeal, Cold Case, Heroes, and Supernatural, among many others.


Jeannot is survived by his wife, Cara, and his two sons, Sacha and Stefan. “He was a passionate filmmaker and cinephile his whole life,” Sacha said, “traits he has passed down to both his sons.”




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