Living all his life outside the homeland, the French filmmaker of Armenian descent Henri Verneuil devoted forty-seven years of his life to work in the cinema, which he perceived as an interesting adventure.
Thanks to the cinema, the director met many of the "stars" of France, America, Italy and other countries. His films were nominated for the Golden Palm Branch of the Cannes Film Festival and the American Oscar. Finally, in 1996, he received the Cesar Prize - the best in Europe.
Biography
An Armenian, who has lived all his life in France, Henri Verneuil was born on October 15, 1920 in the city of Rodost, located in Turkey. The real name of the director is Ashot Malakyan. Like many Armenians, in 1924 his family fled from their habitat to Greece, and from there was going to settle in Mexico. However, fate brought them to Marseille, where they lived until they moved to Paris. The name of this street and this house will then go into the name of his last film.
The boy was ten years old when his parents settled in the capital of France. Desiring that the son receive a better education, the father and mother of the future filmmaker, in addition to his studies at the Lyceum of Équan Provence, hired a private teacher of the Armenian language so that the son would not forget the language of his ancestors.
Work as a journalist
Henri Verneuil, undoubtedly, received a higher education, but there is no exact data on this, it is only known that he worked as a journalist for the newspaper La Marseillaise.
In 1945, after the victory over fascism, when the whole world rejoiced and was preoccupied with world peace, Ashot Malakyan was invited to write articles on the Armenian issue. A young journalist, interested in this issue, wrote the whole truth about the 1915 Armenian genocide, and the articles received a warm response.
Only at the age of 28, Henri Verney realized what he wants to do all his life - to make films. Being a humanist, Verneuil got a job as an assistant director Robert Verneuil, who shot the film “Count of Monte Cristo” that thundered in those years, starring Jean Marais. As a grateful student, Ashot, or, as he was called in France, Henri (he didn’t stop writing articles) borrowed the director’s surname and since then signed his work with that surname.
Henri Verneuil. Films
The young director will remove his first documentary film dedicated to his beloved Marcel in 1948. Then he will become the director of thirty short and documentary films about the city of childhood. And three years later, the director and journalist will write the first script for the film "Table for the Dead" - an adaptation of the novel by Marcel Aimee.
Having the courage, Henri will show the script to the popular French comedian Fernandel. He will like the script so much that he wants to star in the picture.
In a word, the finished film was immediately shown at the Cannes Film Festival - and the name of Henri Verneuil, whose nationality was immediately evident, became known, and many Hollywood producers entered into agreements with him. It was a success.
For the film Five-Leg Ram, filmed in 1954, the Academy Academy awarded Henri Verney as the best original screenwriter. The name of the Armenian scriptwriter and director was put next to such names as Francois Truffaut, Jean Renoir, Rene Clair and many other prominent figures of world cinema.
Who did the director work with?
Such well-known actors as Alain Delon, Jean Gabin, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Fernandel, Yves Montand, Anthony Quin, Omar Sharif, Claudia Cardinale and other actors worked with the director Verney.
Verney shot French comedies, adventures, detectives. It was he who discerned brutal characters in the then-young Alain Delaunay and Jean-Paul Belmondo, although before that they had played in intellectual paintings.
The revolver in the hands of Delon and Belmondo was first invested by Henri Verneuil. Many remember the famous paintings in the seventies and eighties with the participation of these charismatic actors, for example, “Melody from the Basement”, “Sicilian Clan”, “President” and other films, and along with Delon the director often shot Jean Gaben.
Calling Gabin either "a rude animal" or "a predatory cat," the director will remove the famous film "Adventurers" with Jean Gabin and Jean-Paul Belmondo in the lead roles.
Homeland Awards
The director was married twice, children of Henri Verneuil from the first marriage named Patrick and Sophie, and from the second - Sevan and Gayane.
For an indefinite period, Verney will disappear from the public eye, visit his homeland, Armenia, and the Catholicos of All Armenians, Vazgen I, will award him the Order of Gregory the Illuminator of the First Degree. He had many orders and titles for his whole life, but he considered his main business to be assistance to his homeland.
From childhood, the director sang Komitas chants in the Armenian church, knew his native language very well, and on occasion always tried to speak it.
The films "Mayrick" and "Parady Street 588"
In 1991, Henri Troia, also an Armenian by ethnicity, proposes to Verney to make a film about an Armenian family that survived persecution and genocide, and Verney thus fulfills his secret dream.
Finally, the film “Mayrick” (Henri Verneuil), which means “mother (mother)” is dedicated to his family and the Armenian people. The film starred Claudia Cardinale, Omar Sheriff and other actors. On the example of his family and his memories, Verney shows the life of emigrants, the difficulties they had to endure and their cohesion.
Another picture, which became the last in the director’s life, is “Paradise Street 588”.
This is also an autobiographical film, which is a continuation of Mayrick, which tells about the fate of the boy (Henri Verneuil himself), who became the director. The film is watched in one breath.
Conclusion
The director died in 2002, in the eighty-second year of his life, and never received an award for the film "Mayrik" in his homeland. The premiere took place in 2010 at the 7th Golden Apricot Film Festival in Moscow. For the father, the son, Patrick Malakyan, received the historical name of the Armenian ancestors.