Bertrand Blier, director of the films “Tenue de soir” and “Les Valseuses”, died Monday evening at the age of 85, his entourage announced to AFP on Tuesday. The filmmaker had his last partner Farida Rahouadj appear in several of his films.
Bertrand Blier died this Monday. The director died “peacefully at home in Paris, surrounded by his wife and children,” his son Léonard Blier told AFP. The director shared his life with Farida Rahouadj. A former student of Antoine Vitez at the Théâtre national de Chaillot, the 59-year-old actress began her career under the direction of Patrice Chéreau, and has played great authors in the theater such as Hugo, Genet, Racine and Euripides.
In the cinema, we discovered her in “Rue du Bac” by Gabriel Aghion in 1991, then in “La Nuit Sacré” by Nicolas Klotz in 1993. After appearing in several other feature films such as “Les Amoureux” by Catherine Corsini , “Rien à Faire” by Marion Vernoux, and “Paparazzi” by Alain Berberian, Farida Rahouadj landed her first significant role in 2002 in “Les Côtelettes” by Bertrand Blier. In 2005 and 2010, the actress will meet the director in “How much do you love me?” and “Le Bruit des Glaçons”, then in 2018 in “Convoy exceptional”.
“Les Côtelettes” is his greatest cinema memory, according to his statement in the newspaper Ouest France. “The film didn’t do very well but I love it, it was a great pleasure to have Philippe Noiret and Michel Bouquet as partners,” she confided.
Appearances in series and directing
In 2008, Farida Rahouadj was also in the credits of “Musée haute, musée bas” by Jean-Michel Ribes, and, in 2009, played one of the leading roles in “Qu’un Seul Tienne et les Autres Suivrent” by Jean-Michel Ribes. Lea Fehner.
More recently, we could see her in the films “Gagarine” (2019) by Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh, “Viens je t’emmène” by Alian Guiraudie, or even “You won’t have my hatred” by Kilian Riedhof (2020).
-Farida Rahouadj is also a well-known face on the small screen. She has appeared in numerous series including “Le Bureau des Légendes” (2015) and “Les Sauvages” (2019).
Note that as a great lover of Proust, she also wrote and performed in “L’Autre Proust”, a show where she mixes the author’s texts with songs while accompanying herself on the piano.
Long married to the American musician Bobby Thomas Jr. (drummer, percussionist for Weather Report, Joe Zawinul, Stan Getz) as stipulated on her Wikipedia page, she was the companion of Bertrand Blier, who was also the father of her daughter Leïla.
The filmmaker was also the father of another daughter, Béatrice, whom he had with Catherine Florin, his second wife, and of a son, Léonard, with the actress Anouk Grinberg who was his partner in the 1990s .
