From the shark Jaws, Part 2 (1978) to the dogs of Hercule et Sherlock (1996), with Richard Anconina and Christophe Lambert (who, no, do not double their voices as the poster seems to suggest). This animal double says everything about the eclecticism of Jeannot Szwarc, French filmmaker and telefilmer, an effective maker who spent a large part of his career in the United States. He died on January 15 at the age of 85.
Born in Paris in 1939 to a Polish father (Szwarc is pronounced Schwartz and therefore does not rhyme with “shark” in English), this film buff attended Harvard and HEC (he founded a film club there) under paternal pressure before to devote himself to his true childhood dream, cinema. But before that, he worked on episodes of TV series as a director in the United States, from the Iron Man has Kojakpassing through Night Gallery (the fantasy anthology created by Rod “the Fourth Dimension” Serling). It’s Joe Alves, head designer on this series and Jaws by Spielberg, who recommends the speed of Szwarc to resume in the middle of filming his sequel at the hands of filmmaker John D. Hancock, the project considered too dark. The commercial success of this sequel (the most watchable in the franchise after the first) launches him towards other big projects like the spy thriller Enigma (1982, with Martin Sheen and Brigitte Fossey) and Supergirl (1984), spin-off de Supermanbut their failure will make him retreat
