French New Wave director Pierre Kast is noted for making intelligent, but sensitive films often centered on relationships. A former activist with the French Resistance during WW II, he joined the film industry in 1945 as a co-founder of the Paris University CineClub. In 1946, Kast began working for the Cinematheque Francaise. Beginning in 1948, he worked as an assistant director to Jean Gremillon and helped him make his first short film Les Charmes de l'Existence in 1949. Kast got his own start making short films and for several of them won international acclaim. He broke into feature films as an assistant director before making his solo debut in 1957 with A Nude in His Pocket. Later, he began making television movies. Kast has also worked as a film critic and essayists for a few distinguished French film journals and has written a few novels. He died in 1984 of a heart attack while returning home from a film shoot in Rome. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide