Lotte H. Eisner

Eisner worked initially as a film critic in Berlin, then in Paris where in 1936 she met Henri Langlois with whom she founded the Cinémathèque Française.

Here she lived precariously taking any job she could find (such as translating or babysitting) and working whenever possible as a freelance film critic for international journals and newspapers.

After a few months, she managed to escape and travelled to Montpellier, where she enrolled briefly as a student before finding her way to Rodez and to Pastor Exbrayat, who helped her to obtain false papers; she consequently became Louise Escoffier from the Alsace region.

She remained in touch with Henri Langlois, who was in Paris, and was placing cans of film in secret locations around the country to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Nazis.

Badly treated, she began to teach German to some Spanish girls living with the local school teacher Madame Guitard, who took her in; she stayed there until the liberation of Paris in late August 1944.

[3] In 1952, Eisner published her most highly acclaimed book, L'Écran démoniaque, her study of the influence of the spirit of German Expressionism on cinema, translated into English as The Haunted Screen in 1969.

[3] Murnau was awarded the Prix Armand Tallier in 1965 In the late 1950s, she became a friend of and mentor of Werner Herzog and other leading young German film makers, including Wim Wenders, Volker Schlöndorff and Herbert Achternbusch.