Victoria Mercanton

{{Short description|French film director and editor}}

File:Victoria Mercanton.jpg

Victoria Mercanton, or Victoria Spiri-Mercanton[https://web.archive.org/web/20160303193200/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/142796/1848/details NY Times.com] (1911–2007), was a French film editor and director, born Viktoria Aleksandrovna Pozner ({{langx|ru|Виктория Александровна Познер}}) on 25 January [O.S. 12 January] 1911, in Saint Petersburg, Russia,[http://www.lesgensducinema.com/affiche_acteur.php?mots=Mercanton&nom_acteur=SPIRI-MERCANTON%20Victoria&ident=53784&debut=0&record=4&from=ok Victoria Mercanton] on lesgensducinema.com active from the 1930s to 1970s.[http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1432668794964 Victoria Mercanton. Oscars.org]

Known as Toto, she was a frequent collaborator on the films of Roger Vadim since his directorial debut in 1956 with And God Created Woman.

After surviving a couple of disastrous fires of nitrate film in the editing suite - including one which claimed the life of a director sitting next to her - Mercanton successfully lobbied the government to legislate that the French film industry switch to safety film by the mid-1950s. She flippantly explained to Vadim, "You understand, I wanted to be able to smoke my Gauloises while working."Vadim, Roger, Bardot Deneuve Fonda, Warner Books, NY 1986, p. 100. ISBN 0-446-34483-4