Patrice Chéreau dead at 68: French director best known for ‘Queen Margot,’ gay-related dramas (photo: Patrice Chéreau; Isabelle Adjani in ‘Queen Margot’) Screenwriter, sometime actor, and stage, opera, and film director Patrice Chéreau, whose clinically cool — some might say sterile — films were arthouse favorites in some quarters, has died of lung cancer in Paris. Chéreau was 68. Born on November 2, 1944, in Lézigné, in France’s Maine-et-Loire department, and raised in Paris, Patrice Chéreau began directing plays in his late teens. In the mid-’60s, he became the director of a theater in Sartrouville, northwest of Paris, where he staged plays with a strong left-wing bent. Later on he moved to Milan’s Piccolo Teatro, and in the ’80s became the director of the Théâtre des Amandiers in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre. His 1976 staging of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth was considered revolutionary. Patrice Chéreau...
- 10/8/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
From outraging Wagner purists to snubbing Hollywood, Patrice Chéreau is forever going against the grain. Now the great French director has turned his sights on British theatre.
Patrice Chéreau, the great French theatre, opera and film director, is in London to rehearse the first play he has ever directed in the UK. It's a coup for the Young Vic, and its artistic director, David Lan, tells me people are hanging about near the rehearsal rooms just to feel the presence, touch the hem. I am not ashamed to admit I am one of those hem-touchers, fascinated to meet the man who changed the face of modern opera with his centenary Ring cycle at Bayreuth in 1976, when he infuriated traditionalists by replacing Wagnerian horns and bearskins with the trappings of 19th-century plutocracy.
That Ring made the then 31-year-old Chéreau's career. It remains the achievement with which he is most often linked,...
Patrice Chéreau, the great French theatre, opera and film director, is in London to rehearse the first play he has ever directed in the UK. It's a coup for the Young Vic, and its artistic director, David Lan, tells me people are hanging about near the rehearsal rooms just to feel the presence, touch the hem. I am not ashamed to admit I am one of those hem-touchers, fascinated to meet the man who changed the face of modern opera with his centenary Ring cycle at Bayreuth in 1976, when he infuriated traditionalists by replacing Wagnerian horns and bearskins with the trappings of 19th-century plutocracy.
That Ring made the then 31-year-old Chéreau's career. It remains the achievement with which he is most often linked,...
- 4/25/2011
- by Stephen Moss
- The Guardian - Film News
His role in Heartbreaker could take Romain Duris into the mainstream. But don't categorise him just yet
There's a recurring line in Romain Duris's new film, Heartbreaker: the suggestion that when he smiles, he looks like "a bit of a dickhead". The woman playing his sister says it, the woman playing his love interest says it. He says it. He reiterates it now, over espresso in a Paris hotel. "Yes! This is not the ideal guy. He's a simple guy. He's a buffoon [he pronounces it to rhyme with muffin]. And he has a dickhead face, yes."
He laughs. Duris does not, in fact, look like a dickhead, less still act like one. But he does have a completely transformative smile, capable of changing his face in the flick of a lip: from sexy to silly, brooding to buffoonish. In Heartbreaker, the reason he's supposed to look dim when he grins is that his emotional cover has been blown: his character,...
There's a recurring line in Romain Duris's new film, Heartbreaker: the suggestion that when he smiles, he looks like "a bit of a dickhead". The woman playing his sister says it, the woman playing his love interest says it. He says it. He reiterates it now, over espresso in a Paris hotel. "Yes! This is not the ideal guy. He's a simple guy. He's a buffoon [he pronounces it to rhyme with muffin]. And he has a dickhead face, yes."
He laughs. Duris does not, in fact, look like a dickhead, less still act like one. But he does have a completely transformative smile, capable of changing his face in the flick of a lip: from sexy to silly, brooding to buffoonish. In Heartbreaker, the reason he's supposed to look dim when he grins is that his emotional cover has been blown: his character,...
- 6/24/2010
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
It's been a few years since I've seen any of French filmmaker Patrice Chéreau new films though I was quite taken with his early 90’s offering Queen Margot, a film which isn't exactly historically accurate but well worth a look. Chéreau has continued to work but none of his films have caught my attention until now with the trailer for his newest offering, a relationship drama titled Persecution (Persécution).
The film stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, who already delivered an excellent performance this year in Lars von Trier's Antichrist (review), as Sonia and Romain Duris as Daniel, a couple sharing a love/hate relationship. When a mysterious man (played by the great Jean-Hugues Anglade) turns up in Daniel's apartment, he assumes it's a one time event organized by Sonia but when Sonia breaks up with him and the mysterious man is still harassing Daniel, a whole new set of questions arise...
The film stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, who already delivered an excellent performance this year in Lars von Trier's Antichrist (review), as Sonia and Romain Duris as Daniel, a couple sharing a love/hate relationship. When a mysterious man (played by the great Jean-Hugues Anglade) turns up in Daniel's apartment, he assumes it's a one time event organized by Sonia but when Sonia breaks up with him and the mysterious man is still harassing Daniel, a whole new set of questions arise...
- 11/19/2009
- QuietEarth.us
- While Venice remains a fest that strictly selects auteur driven material, Toronto is a beast of a film festival that serves up a huge heaping plate of films rolled up in red carpets. Tiff is also a great place for journalists to follow up on cinematic experiences from Cannes and conduct some in-depth interviews as I plan to do with those behind the Tales From the Golden Age, A Prophet, Dogtooth, Fish Tank and Police, Adjectiv. They'll most likely receive their North American preems at this festival. So what are Cameron and Piers looking at? Read ahead. Usually reserved for the bigger films and Oscar buzz titles, the Galas and Special Presentations section in Toronto should be populated with: the long awaited thriller from Richard Kelly (The Box), Julie Taymor's The Tempest starring Helen Mirren and coincidentally it would make sense for her hubby Taylor Hackford to bring Love Ranch for show.
- 6/13/2009
- IONCINEMA.com
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