Born in 1939, Bertrand Blier, died on the evening of Monday January 20, 2025 at the age of 85, his entourage announced to AFP. Always remaining discreet about his young years, the son of actor Bernard Blier, he did not have a very harmonious childhood, torn between two parents with difficult characters who ended up divorcing. When he started working, he still chose to follow the path of Bernard Blier, this “extraordinary father“. Except that it won’t be in front of the cameras, but behind it, during the production. Bertrand Blier began his career as an assistant director, with a few projects in which his father played. Then, he directed his own projects and directed nearly twenty films.
Bertrand Blier: a taste for provocation
From his first work, the unfairly overlooked documentary, Hitler, don’t know, Bertrand Blier imposes what will mark his entire filmography: a strong taste for provocation and itching! Its trademark radiates the cult The Valseusesits biggest success to date, with more than 5 million spectators in theaters. In 1974, this picaresque story of two little thugs who advance without asking questions and kidnap/recover a young hairdresser who loves giving pleasure more than receiving it, is a real kick in the butt of French cinema. And the rest of his filmography is of the same caliber: squeaky, biting and mocking. In Calmit shows men literally fleeing from armies of women. And in Evening weardescribed as a “Fucking film” on the poster, it plays with the codes of virility, imagining a strange love at first sight between Gérard Depardieu and Michel Blanc. Over the years, he gradually abandoned the fairly realistic chronicles of his beginnings to move towards increasingly unusual and dreamlike cinematographic forms. He then imagines the sublime and tragic Too beautiful for you (Grand Jury Prize in Cannes) where Depardieu leaves Carole Bouquet for Josiane Balasko, or even Thank you lifea film mosaic where eras collide in a captivating waltz.
The actors who marked his cinema
In addition to a keen sense of cult dialogues (“we’re not really there, […] relaxed of the glans”), if there is one thing to remember from Bertrand Blier’s filmography, it is his crazy love for actors. Faithful in friendship, he often calls on the same personalities to bring his characters to life and thus directs Gérard Depardieu nine times, Jean-Pierre Marielle four times and Patrick Dewaere three times (notably in the very beautiful Father-in-law). From this admiration for his father’s profession and for those who do it, Blier even made an entire film: The Actors. Pierre Arditi, Josiane Balasko, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Claude Brasseur, Jean-Claude Brialy, Alain Delon, Gérard Depardieu, Albert Dupontel, André Dussollier and many others… The cast is a real “who’s who” of French cinema! French cinema to whom Bertrand Blierwinner of a Grand Jury Prize at Cannes, five Césars and even an Oscar for best foreign film, will undoubtedly be missed.
