Robert Fischer embarked on a cinematic journey, commencing his writing endeavors about film in the mid-1970s. His meticulously crafted books on renowned directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, Jodie Foster, Bernhard Wicki, Jean-Pierre Melville, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Robert Bresson, André Bazin, and François Truffaut solidified his reputation as one of Germany's most distinguished film historians.
Fischer's remarkable translation of Truffaut's complete writings into German earned him the prestigious title of Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from the French Cultural Minister Jack Lang. He collaborated with Joe Hembus on a comprehensive history of the New German Cinema. Following a five-year tenure as Vice Director at the Munich Film Museum, where he played a vital role in the reconstruction of Orson Welles' unfinished films, Fischer transitioned to filmmaking in 1999.
His documentary, Monsieur Truffaut Meets Mr. Hitchcock, premiered at the Cinemathèque Française in Paris, New York's Film Forum, and the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles. In 2000, his documentary, Milos Forman: Film Is Truth, opened the Forman retrospective at the Munich Film Festival. Fischer's subsequent documentaries, Fassbinder in Hollywood (2002) and Ernst Lubitsch in Berlin (2006),were showcased at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
As a curator, Fischer worked tirelessly for 25 years at the Munich Film Festival, and since 2002, has served as a consulting producer for The Criterion Collection and other esteemed DVD labels. In December 2016, President François Hollande honored Fischer's outstanding contributions to French culture by bestowing upon him the title of Officer in the National Order of Merit.
