Born in 1948 in France; French film theorist and videomaker; studied philosophy, linguistics and semiotics with Roland Barthes and Christian Metz at l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales; earned a doctorate; has taught semiotics of cinema and textual analysis of film at the University of Paris; the Centre d'Etudes Americain du Cinema, Paris; and the State University of New York, Buffalo.