Michel Audiard

Apostrophes

Apostrophes was a live, weekly, literary, prime-time, talk show on French television created and hosted by Bernard Pivot. It ran for fifteen years (724 episodes) from January 10, 1975, to June 22, 1990, and was one of the most watched shows on French television (around 6 million regular viewers). It was broadcast on Friday nights on the channel France 2 (which was called "Antenne 2" from 1975 to 1992). The hourlong show was devoted to books, authors and literature. The format varied between one-on-one interviews with a single author and open discussions between four or five authors.

Michel Audiard : J'parle pas aux cons, ça les instruit

With his popular culture, prolific imagination, and verbal alchemy, Michel Audiard revolutionized cinema in the 1950s and 1960s. Alongside his mentor and friend Jean Gabin, his writing partner Albert Simonin, and his favorite actors Bernard Blier, Lino Ventura, and Michel Serrault, we find his verve and innate sense of repartee, which alone reflect the spirit of the French people and language. From elegance to cheekiness, cynicism to tenderness, he made words speak like no one else. Between the expressions he stole from bar counters to refine them and his encyclopedic knowledge of French culture, he created a unique style and ranks alongside Prévert and Jeanson as one of the greatest dialogue writers in French cinema.

Belmondo: The Incorrigible

Charismatic and resourceful, seducer and daredevil, Jean-Paul Belmondo has always played his roles as he lived, at a thousand miles an hour. He had only one passion: to entertain the public with his smile, his naturalness, his energy, his stunts. But contrary to appearances, his destiny was full of pitfalls. This film lifts the veil on a founding childhood that allowed him to overcome many obstacles throughout his life thanks to the tutelary figures of his father and mother. Told from the inside with the help of his autobiography, interviews and unpublished archives, this epic story traces the career of this turbulent young actor who launched the New Wave in Breathless before becoming the popular Bebel, an indestructible and provocative vigilante. From film to film, this documentary paints an intimate portrait of a man who built himself up to reach the top: his triumphs but also his trials, his doubts, his secrets, his angers, his clowning, his disappointments or his personal dramas.

Mireille Darc, la femme libre

On August 28, 2017, Mireille Darc passed away at the age of 79. She was Audiard and Lautner's favorite actress, the sex symbol of the pop years, a photographer, a woman in love, and a documentary filmmaker. The artist was also the patron of La Chaîne de l'espoir, an association that helps disadvantaged children. Mireille Darc tells her story through a selection of her most intimate interviews. Her loved ones also talk about her: her husband, Pascal Desprez; Anthony Delon; Véronique de Villèle, her personal assistant and friend; writer Lionel Duroy; Professor Deloche; and photographers Richard Melloul and Francis Giacobetti, who made her their model...

Le Grand Échiquier

Cinépanorama

Lino Ventura, la part intime

The fall of 2017 marked the 30th anniversary of Lino Ventura's death. Whether in the role of tough cops or tough guys - in the 1960s, Lino Ventura was one of the most popular French character actors. The new portrait begins with the actor's childhood. He came to Paris from Parma in Italy as a child with his single mother and faced many humiliations in a xenophobic environment. The documentary explores the man behind the rough exterior and the tough characters he embodied, most of whom were courageous but introverted loners.

Michel Audiard et le mystère du triangle des Bermudes

A documentary about writer Michel Audiard (1920-1985). Contemporary interviews are interwoven with archival footage and clips from his films. It offers a deeper understanding of the career of the man whom Jean Gabin swore by from the mid-1950s onward, and whom films such as "Les Tontons Flingueurs" immortalized.

Il était une fois... Les Tontons flingueurs

Alain Delon, l'ombre au tableau

A childhood in boarding school, volunteered at 17 for the war and dismissed for indiscipline, thug in Marseille turned gigolo in Paris, he became actor thanks to some inspired women. Then flying high, fast and far, thanks to his director masters René Clément, Luchino Visconti & Jean-Pierre Melville.