Margaret Menguez, head of French production company Les Films du Losanj, which produced films by Michael Henke, Wim Wenders and Eric Rohmer, among others, has died. She was 83 years old.
The company released a statement confirming that Menguez died in Montpellier on August 7. He cited his “love of films and work, and his loyalty to his filmmakers that have become the hallmark of Les Films du Losange,” describing Menguez as “open-minded”. to Europe and the international scene, which she particularly loved.
Menguez led Les Films du Losanj for nearly 50 years, taking over the company in 1973. He has produced more than 60 films, including the 1977 feature by Haneke and Wenders, Volker Schlöndorff’s (1984), Agnieszka Holland’s (1990). (1990) and (1992), among many others.
Received 5 Oscar nominations in 2013, including Menguez’s nomination for Best Feature. It won for Best International Feature. Received two Oscar nominations.
The German-French film producer was born in Hungary in 1941 but was expelled from the country in 1945 with his family, who were of German origin, as a result of the siege of Budapest. He grew up in Germany. Menguez joined Les Films du Losange in 1975, the company founded in 1962 by Rohmer and Barbet Schroeder. He was originally hired as an assistant in Rohmer’s 1976 German-language film, starring Edith Clever and Bruno Ganz. After Schroeder was busy producing his 1975 feature, Menegos came to take over the company and stayed.
During her long tenure at Les Films du Losange, Menegoz would work with a generation of influential European writers from Wenders, Rohmer and Haneke, Andrzej Wajda, Lars von Trier, Margarethe von Trotta, Christian Petzold and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. He began his collaboration with Austrian director Henke on his 2001 feature and produced all of his following German- and French-language features, starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva and Isabelle Huppert. and, most recently, also features Huppert.
Menguez launched a theatrical distribution label for Les Films du Losange in 1986, and an international sales division in the early 90s. In 2021, he arranged to sell the company to Alexis Dentek and Charles Gilbert, ensuring that the storied firm would continue.
Menguez was also a tireless promoter of French cinema and headed cinema export body Unifrance as president, taking over at the Berlin Film Festival in 2003 following the sudden death of predecessor and friend Daniel Toscan du Plantier. They stayed until 2009.
“Margaret didn’t work internationally, she embodied it,” current Unifrance managing director Daniela Elstner, who began her career in international sales at Les Films du Losanj, wrote in a statement. “Her productions speak for her, her way of thinking and her love of the world. She was a role model for many young women. I was one of them. Margaret introduced me to this world of cinema. Taught everything that has no boundaries and invites us to think outside the box Thank you Margaret, we will miss you so much.
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