France: Director Bertrand Blier died at the age of 85, according to AFP

(Reuters) – French director Bertrand Blier, whose film “Prepare your handkerchiefs” won the Oscar for best foreign film in 1979, has died at the age of 85, his entourage announced to AFP on Tuesday.

Born on March 14, 1939 in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine), Bertrand Blier directed classics of French cinema such as “Les Valseuses” (1974), “Buffetfroid” (1979) and “Tenue de soiree” ( 1986) and directed several times by Gérard Depardieu.

“Bertrand Blier was an immense and non-conformist filmmaker, a mad lover of the freedom to create,” praised Rachida Dati, the French Minister of Culture, on X.

(Writing by Diana Mandiá, editing by Kate Entringer)