让-克劳德·卢梭，Jean-Claude Rousseau, born in Paris, lived in New York in the 1970s. There he discovered avant-garde cinema at the same time as the films of Ozu. In 1980 he finished writing a screenplay, Le Concert champêtre, and directed his first films. After Les Antiquités de Rome, La Vallée close is his second feature film. Selected by the Locarno Film Festival, he won the Grand Prize for Documentary at Belfort in 1999. In 2001 a tribute was paid to him at the Venice Film Festival, followed by a retrospective at the Jeonju Film Festival. De son appartement won the Grand Prix of the international competition at FIDMarseille in 2007. The same year, the Villa Medicis welcomes him in Rome for a complete program of his films. His films Un monde flottant, Le Tombeau de Kafka, and Souvenir d’Athènes were selected in 2021, 2022 and 2023 at Cinéma du réel.