Filmmaker Bertrand Blier died on January 21 at the age of 85. He was known for having directed “Les Valseuses”, “Preparez vos mouchoirs” and “Tenue de soir”.
Filmmaker Bertrand Blier died this Tuesday, January 21 at the age of 85, his entourage announced to AFP (via Le Figaro). Author of Les Valseuses, director with a unique tone and precise direction, he won the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the Césars for Best Screenplay, Best Direction and Best Film for Trop belle pour toi.
Debut with a spy film
After starting as an assistant director in 1959 on Oh! that mambo by John Berry and being noticed for his docu-fiction Hitler… don't know! In 1963, Bertrand Blier directed his father, the legendary Bernard Blier, in his first fiction feature film, If I Was a Spy (1967).
Popular and critical success
However, it was not until 1974 that Blier, a director, made a name for himself with the public triumph of Les Valseuses and its star trio Gérard Depardieu, Patrick Dewaere and Miou-Miou. The Blier touch is established: acerbic humor and social truth. Four years later, after a divisive Calmos, Bertrand Blier reunites with his male duo Depardieu–Dewaere for Prepare Your Tissues for which he won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, before directing Depardieu solo and his father in Cold Buffet (1979), César for best screenplay, then Dewaere in the subversive Beau-Pere (1981).
Screenwriter of all of his films (but also of Grosse Fatigue by Michel Blanc in 1994), the filmmaker signs with Tenue de soir one of the biggest scandals of French cinema of the 80s with its themes of homosexuality and threesomes addressed without detour. He finds there once again Gérard Depardieu et Meow-Meow and won the Best Actor Prize at the Cannes Film Festival (for Michel Blanc) and three nominations for the Césars. Three years later, the public and critical success of Too beautiful for you is even more imposing: Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and five Césars including those for best film, best director and best actress (for Carole Bouquet).
Reward time
The 1990s were marked by a tidal wave of awards, largely due to his collaboration with Anouk Grinberg, a newcomer to Blier's gallery of actors. We will mention Merci la vie (a César and 6 nominations) and Un, deux, trois, soleil in 1993 (two Césars and especially the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Festival for Marcello Mastroianni) as well as Mon homme (1996), Prix for best actress for Anouk Grinberg at the Berlin Festival.
-A cycle about death
From 2000, the filmmaker became interested in death and old age. He began by bringing together around thirty big names in French cinema for Les Acteurs, a tribute to the acting profession and to his father, all tinged with derision. If the film is rather well received, Les Côtelettes, with Philippe Noiret and Michel Bouquet as old epicureans expounding on the meaning of life and the pleasures of the flesh, divides the Cannes public, and receives a mixed national reception from the public and critics .
Blier returned in 2005 with How much do you love me?, the story of a commercialized love between the peripatetic Monica Bellucci and her client Bernard Campan. Ten years later The Actorshe once again directs Albert Dupontel, who has become the incarnation of Jean Dujardin's cancer, in the dramatic comedy Le Bruit des glaces.
The reunion with Depardieu
Nine years later, after a detour through the theater to direct Sorry about the carpet and a few projects which did not come to fruition, he produced Convoi exceptional, bringing together his favorite actor Gérard Depardieu and Christian Clavier. This will be his last film.
The inimitable cheekiness of Bertrand Blier in “Evening Wear”:
