Meet the hero of the article - Claude Berry, a popular French actor, screenwriter, director and producer. For a long time he was president of the French Academy of Cinema. The father of film producer and actor Tom Langmann, as well as actress Julien Rassam.
Claude Berry, biography: the beginning
The actor was born on July 1, 1934, in Paris, in a Jewish family who moved from Romania. Claude’s father, Hirsch Lagmann, was a furrier, his mother, Beila Burke, was a housewife. The younger sister Arlette Langmann, born in 1946, became a screenwriter.
Claude Berry began acting in films in 1953. Speaking in small roles, the young man was proud of his involvement in cinematographic activities, but soon this seemed to him not enough, and he began to dream of his own productions. The director's work attracted the young man as a creative process that makes the author famous and, in addition, provides a livelihood.
Berry Director
He firmly decided to try his hand at directing and in 1962 he shot a 15-minute short film called "Chicken". The film was so successful that it was awarded at the Venice Film Festival, and then was awarded the prestigious Academy Award. For the young filmmaker, this prize is of great importance, since the director of the film, which has earned a "golden statuette", is on a par with the best directors, and opportunities for further creativity are opening up for him.
In 1964, Claude Berry took part in the creation of a whole series of short stories, such as “Chance in Love”, “Kisses” and others. The young director also shot his first full-length film in 1964. The painting was called "The Old Man and the Child" and was a resounding success thanks to the talented play of Michel Simon, who managed to create an inimitable image of the old anti-Semite. Everything Orthodox, accumulated in the soul of an old hater, suddenly began to soften in the process of communicating with an ordinary Jewish boy.
Do you need a chronology
Claude Berry, whose films began to attract more and more attention, began shooting a series of films, most of them autobiographical, although he did not try to follow the chronology. Such negligence let the director down, since any autobiography requires consistency in the presentation of facts. Berry got scattered fragments, the meaning of which eluded. The director had to redo a lot.
A series of paintings, such as "Marriage", "Papino Kino", "Thieves" still somehow survived the rental, but "Disease of the Century" and "Sex Shop" failed miserably.
Something needs to be changed
In the end, Claude Berry began to understand that the theme of the paintings needs to be updated. And in 1983, one of his best films, entitled “Chao, clown!”, Was released. In it, he shot the popular French comedian Kolyush, whom he endowed with an unusual role for that - not comic, as usual, but deeply dramatic. In the course of the story, the main character, a former policeman working at a gas station, suddenly appears as a ruthless avenger. His task is to pay for his friend.
The following paintings by Claude are also serious films, among which the adaptation of Marcel Pagnol - Jean de Floret, Marcel Aime - Uranus, the novel Germinal Zola, "Manon from the Source". In 1996, Berry removed the classic film "Lucy Aubrac."
In addition to acting and directing, Claude Berry was successfully engaged in producing.
Cooperating with the company "Rennproductsion", he took upon himself the production of films by Roman Polansky: "Lover", "Tess", "Bear". He took part in the creation of films by Milos Forman, Claude Zidi, Bertrand Blieu and Claude Saute. He gathered around himself a team of young directors: C. Miller, M. Pial, J. Douillon.
Filmography. Claude Berry as a Director
During his career, Claude as a director shot about thirty full-length films. The following is a sample list of his works.
- "The Old Man and the Child" (1967).
- The Thieves (1970).
- "Papino's Cinema" (1970).
- "Male of the Century (1975).
- "The First Time" (1976).
- The Moment of Delusion (1977).
- "I Love You" (1980).
- "School Teacher" (1981).
- "Ciao, clown!" (1983).
- "Jean de Florett" (1986).
- "Manon from the source" (1986).
- Uranus (1990).
- The Germinal (1993).
- "The Lucy War" (1997).
- "The State of Panic" (1999).
- "Housewife" (2002).
- "Dry residue" (2005).
- "Trezor" (2009).
Among the films shot by the director during the period from 1965 to 2010, there are several works that differ in deep psychologism, of which “Just Together” stands out - a film shot in 2007.
In the center of the plot are two loneliness, finally finding each other. This is a young girl Camilla (in her role as Audrey Tatu) and a certain Philibert, her neighbor (Laurent Stocker).
She, as usual, moves to him, but then a third character appears, the cook Philibert, Monsieur Frank (the role is played by Guillaume Canet). A peculiar triangle arises, not quite ordinary, but no less interesting from this. "Just Together" is a film about how to live in accordance with the situation.
Berry overcame literary nuances with splendor. There was a temptation to introduce the fourth character, then the postulate “just together” would have sounded differently. The storyline in this case could be twisted as you like. However, the author resisted, the four of us live easily, but you try to live "just together" together!