Maurice Pialat (; 31 August 1925 – 11 January 2003) was a French film director, screenwriter and actor known for the rigorous and unsentimental style of his films. His work is often described as " realist",Maurice Pialat: A Cinema of Surrender
at Rouge though many film criticsTribute to Maurice Pialat
at Senses of Cinema acknowledge it does not fit the traditional definition of realism. Pialat's films are said to have dispensed with mannerisms, and his everyday stories tell the bittersweet nature of the French petty bourgeoisie. This earned him the disregard of some critics, but also enduring popularity, with films characterized by a psychological narrative style, often set outside the metropolises.

Life and career

Pialat was born in Cunlhat, Puy-de-Dôme, France. He originally intended to become a painter, but met with little success.Lightning in a Bottle
at ''

Film Comment ''Film Comment'' is the official publication of Film at Lincoln Center. It features reviews and analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world. Founded in 1962 and originally released as a quarterly, ''Film ...

'' Having acquired a camera at age 16, he tried his hand at documentary films before making his first notable short, '' L'amour existe'', in 1960. Pialat came to filmmaking late. He directed his feature-length debut, 1969's '' L'enfance nue'' (''The Naked Childhood'') at age 43. The film, which was co-produced by

French New Wave The New Wave (, ), also called the French New Wave, is a French European art cinema, art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentat ...

director

François Truffaut François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. He came under the tutelage of film critic Andre Bazin as a ...

, won the

Prix Jean Vigo The Prix Jean Vigo () is an award in the Cinema of France , French cinema given annually since 1951 to a French film director, in homage to Jean Vigo. Since 1960, the award has been given to both a director of a feature film and to a director of a ...

. During his 35-year career, Pialat completed ten major features, many of which—most notably '' Loulou''—have been interpreted as autobiographical. He directed Gérard Depardieu in four films: '' Loulou'', ''

Police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

'', '' Sous le soleil de Satan'' (''Under the Sun of Satan''), for which Pialat won the

Palme d'Or The (; ) is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festiv ...

at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, and '' Le Garçu'' (1995). In a posthumous tribute written for the French film magazine '' Positif'', critic Noël Herpe called Pialat's style "a naturalism that was born of formalism". In English-language film criticism, he is often compared to his American contemporary

John Cassavetes John Nicholas Cassavetes (December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989) was an American filmmaker and actor. He began as an actor in film and television before helping to pioneer modern American independent cinema as a writer and director, often self- ...

.Maurice Pialat at John Cassavetes
at Senses of Cinema Summarizing Pialat's stance as a filmmaker in a profile for ''Film Comment'', critic Kent Jones wrote: "To say that Pialat marched to the beat of a different drummer is to put it mildly. In fact, he didn't really march at all. He ambled, and fuck anybody who got it into their head that they'd like to amble along with him. Or behind him. Or ahead of him."

Style

Pialat's films are often noted for their loose yet rigorous style and for their elliptical editing and long takes. Describing the unique

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

of Pialat's work, film critic Kent Jones wrote: "More than Cassavetes, more than Renoir, Pialat wanted every frame of celluloid bearing his name to be marked by the here and the now. ..He was always willing to bend his narratives around experience. And the frequent ruptures, discontinuities, perspective shifts, and ellipses in his work are less single-minded than those of Cassavetes, more far-reaching in their implications."

Filmography

Director

Feature films

*'' L'enfance nue'' (1968) *'' La maison des bois'' (1971, TV mini-series) *'' We Won't Grow Old Together ( Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble)'' (1972) *'' The Mouth Agape ( La gueule ouverte)'' (1974) *'' Graduate First ( Passe ton bac d'abord)'' (1978) *'' Loulou'' (1980) *'' À nos amours'' (1983) *''

'' (1985) *'' Under the Sun of Satan ( Sous le soleil de Satan)'' (1987) *''

Van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artwork ...

'' (1991) *'' Le Garçu'' (1995)

Short films (selected)

*'' Drôles de bobines'' (1957) *'' L'Ombre familière'' (1958) *'' L'amour existe'' (1960) *'' Janine'' (1961) *'' Maître Galip'' (1962) *'' Jardins d'Arabie'' (1963) *'' Byzance'' (1964) *'' Pehlivan'' (1964)

Actor

*''Le jeu de la nuit'' (1957) *'' This Man Must Die'' (1969) - Le commissaire de police Constant *'' My Little Loves'' (1974) - Ami d'Henri *''Les lolos de Lola'' (1976) - Le vendeur d'outils *'' À Nos Amours'' (1983) - Le père *'' Under the Sun of Satan'' (1987) - Menou-Segrais (final film role)

References

External links

*
Maurice Pialat Resource
(in French)
Literature on Maurice Pialat
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pialat, Maurice 1925 births 2003 deaths People from Puy-de-Dôme French film directors French male film actors Deaths from kidney failure in France Directors of Palme d'Or winners Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery French male screenwriters 20th-century French screenwriters 20th-century French male actors French television directors 20th-century French male writers