Claude Sautet

Claude Sautet (23 February 1924 – 22 July 2000) was a French film director and screenwriter.
He was a chronicler of post-war French society. He made a total of five films with his favorite actress Romy Schneider.
Biography
Born in Montrouge, Hauts-de-Seine, France, Sautet first studied painting and sculpture before attending a film university in Paris where he began his career and later became a television producer. His first movie, Hello Smile! (originally Bonjour Sourire) was released in 1956.
He earned international attention with The Things of Life (Les choses de la vie, 1970), which he wrote and directed, like the rest of his later films. Featuring Michel Piccoli in the male lead, it was shown in competition at the 1970 Cannes Festival. The film also revived the career of Romy Schneider; she acted in several of Sautet's later films. In his next film Max and the Junkmen (Max et les Ferrailleurs, 1971) Schneider played a prostitute, while in César and Rosalie (César et Rosalie, 1972) she portrayed a married woman who copes with the reappearance of an old flame.
Vincent, François, Paul and the Others (Vincent, Paul, François, et les Autres, 1974) is one of Sautet's most acclaimed films. Four middle-class men meet in the country every weekend mainly to discuss their lives. As well as Piccoli, it featured Yves Montand, Gérard Depardieu, and Stéphane Audran. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian in a 2020 tribute article to Michel Piccoli thought it was "arguably the best" of the "five very well-regarded movies" on which the actor and director collaborated. Sautet achieved even further critical success with Mado (1976).
His film A Simple Story (Une Histoire simple, 1978) was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film featured Schneider again, this time as a dissatisfied working woman in her 40s. She won the César Award for Best Actress for her performance.
In the 1980s, he made only two films Waiter! (Garçon!, 1983), a drama starring Yves Montand as a middle-aged waiter, and the comedy A Few Days with Me (Quelques Jours Avec Moi, 1988).
Claude Sautet won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the César Award for Best Director for A Heart in Winter (Un cœur en hiver, 1992) and received the César once more for Nelly and Mr. Arnaud (Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud, 1995). Both films starred Emmanuelle Béart. Apart from his own directing, he also wrote screenplays for other directors.
Claude Sautet died of liver cancer in Paris in 2000 and was buried there in the Montparnasse Cemetery.
Filmography (Director)
(1955)
(1960)
(1965)
(1970)
(1971)
(1972)
(1974)
Mado (1976)
(1978)
(1980)
(1983)
(1988)
(1992)
(1995)
Filmography (Writer)
(1959), directed by Georges Franju (also first assistant director)
(1963), directed by Jacques Deray
Peau de banane (1963), directed by Marcel Ophüls
That Tender Age (1964), directed by Gilles Grangier
Échappement libre (1964), directed by Jean Becker
(1965), directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau
(1967), directed by Alain Cavalier
(1970), directed by Jacques Deray
(1971), directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau
(1988), directed by José Giovanni
Filmography (other)
Patrick Dewaere (1992), documentary of Marc Esposito
References
External links
Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
1924 births
2000 deaths
People from Montrouge
French film directors
Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery
Deaths from liver cancer
Deaths from cancer in France
Best Director César Award winners