Claude Berri

Known for ProductionBorn 1934-07-01Died 2009-01-12Paris, France

Claude Berri (1 July 1934 – 12 January 2009) was a French film director, producer, screenwriter, distributor and actor. Berri was a leading figure of the French film industry both a director and as a producer. Following a short film that won an Academy Award, Berri achieved success with his first feature film, The Two of Us (1967). He then had a varied career, producing and distributing both mainstream and avant-garde films. During the 1970s, Berri's films as a director were mostly comedies but he later found increased success with several high-profile literary adaptations. In 1986, his two-part film Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring won public and critical acclaim, becoming his best-known work. He next directed Uranus (1990) and most notably Germinal (1993). In 1997, he directed the historical biopic Lucie Aubrac. Directors whose films were produced by Berri include Roman Polanski, Jacques Demy, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Claude Sautet, Miloš Forman, Claude Zidi, Jacques Rivette, Patrice Chéreau, Alain Chabat, Abdellatif Kechiche and Dany Boon. Born Claude Beri Langmann in Paris, Berri was the son of Jewish immigrant parents. His mother, Beila (née Bercu), was from Romania, and his father, Hirsch Langmann, was a furrier from Poland. In 1943, during the Nazi occupation of France, Berri's parents entrusted him for his safety to a family in the countryside. He spent the rest of the occupation being fostered by "an antisemitic couple" who were unaware that he was Jewish. His sister, screenwriter and editor Arlette Langmann, was born after the war. Berri's original vocation was to be an actor. He began a career in the early 1950s but struggled to find roles, which prompted him to turn to directing and eventually producing. In 1965, he gained notice for The Chicken, which won the Award for best short film at the 38th Academy Awards. In 1967, Berri directed The Two of Us (Le Vieil homme et l'enfant), a partially autobiographical film that told the story of a Jewish child, entrusted during World War II to a benevolent and antisemitic old farmer who remains unaware that the boy he is caring for is a Jew. The film was a great success in France and abroad. Berri also adapted the story into a novel, released the same year as the film. During the years that followed, Berri became active as a producer and film distributor while continuing to direct his own films. Also in 1967, with his associate (later brother-in-law) Jean-Pierre Rassam, Berri bought the international distribution rights for Miloš Forman's The Firemen's Ball which was a great success and was nominated to the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Berri's company, Renn Productions, which he had founded to produce The Two of Us, gradually became a major player in the French film industry. ... Source: Article "Claude Berri" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.Read more

Movies & web series

Un film et son époque

The House

Spécial cinéma

Filming 'Tess'

Midi Première

Tess: The Experience

Les Nuls, l'émission

Tess: From Novel to Screen

Le Grand Échiquier

All About My Mother

Jean de Florette

Manon of the Spring

Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra

The Two of Us

Male of the Century

The Truth

Asphalt

So Long, Stooge

Queen Margot

Greed

The Secret of the Grain

The Mother and the Whore

The Bear

Naked Childhood

The Lover

The Three Brothers

Tess

Les enragés

Welcome to the Sticks

Urgent ou à quoi bon exécuter des projets puisque le projet est en lui-même une jouissance suffisante

French Cancan

Seven Days to Remember

Marie for Memory

Germinal

François Truffaut, une autobiographie

Van Gogh

Oratorio for Prague

Hunting & Gathering

The Sleeping Car Murders

Uranus

Headstrong

Sachs' Disease

The Egg

The Chicken

Janine

Lucie Aubrac

Time

The Ogre