André Téchiné
André Téchiné | |
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Rendez-vous |
André Téchiné (French: [teʃine]; born 13 March 1943) is a French screenwriter and film director. He has a long and distinguished career that places him among the most accomplished post-New Wave French film directors.
Téchiné belongs to a second generation of French film critics associated with
In his films he addresses various themes related to morality and the development of modern society, such as homosexuality, divorce, adultery, family breakdown, prostitution, crime, drug addiction or AIDS.
Life
André Téchiné was born on 13 March 1943 at
At nineteen he moved to
Téchiné's first filmmaking experience emerged from a theatrical milieu.
Téchiné is noted for his elegant and emotionally charged films that often delve into the complexities of human condition and emotions. One of Téchiné's trademarks is the examination of human relations in a sensitive but unsentimental way. Influenced by
"I never know how each film will end," Téchiné has said. "When I'm filming, I shoot each scene as if it were a short film. It's only when I edit that I worry about the narrative. My objective is to tell a story, but that's the final thing I do."[2]
Film career
Paulina s'en va (1969)
André Téchiné made his debut as director with
Souvenirs d'en France (1974)
After working in television and theater,[7] Téchiné first came to prominence with his second film, Souvenirs d'en France (French Provincial) (1974), a mix of black comedy, romantic drama and nostalgia with a distinct tone. The film was inspired by Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons and filmed in Téchiné's native village. It is a highly compressed history of a small-town family from early in the century through the Resistance and on to May 1968. Téchiné explored the relationship between the grand scope of life and more personal histories.[8] The film stars Jeanne Moreau.
Barocco (1976)
Téchiné demonstrated his penchant for atmospheric storytelling with his next film, the thriller Barocco (1976), a crime drama. A boxer who accepted and then turned down a huge bribe from a politician to tell a lie that would influence an election is killed by a hired assassin. The boxer's girlfriend eventually falls in love with the killer while trying to remake him into the image of her slain lover. The film elicited critical plaudits for its elegant look.[8]
Les sœurs Brontë (1979)
Three years later, Téchiné took on biography with Les sœurs Brontë
Hôtel des Amériques (1981)
Rendez-vous (1985)
After making the television production La Matiouette ou l'arrière-pays (1983), Téchiné returned to critical attention with
Le lieu du crime (1986)
Les innocents (1987)
In Téchiné's next film, Les Innocents (1987), a young woman, born and raised in Northern France, is visiting the Mediterranean city of Toulon for the first time. She is prompted by two events: the wedding of her sister, and the disappearance of her brother, a deaf-mute who supports himself as a pickpocket under the tutelage of a young Arab and an older bisexual married man with a weakness for young Arabs. The girl meets them and finds herself attracted to the young Arab and the older man's son, who is bisexual like his father. She is soon torn between the two in a romantic and sexual dilemma that mirrors France's political turmoil over its growing Arab population.
J'embrasse pas (1991)
My Favorite Season (1993)
My Favorite Season (Ma saison préférée) (1993) is a dark and somber story of middle-aged estranged siblings, a provincial lawyer (sister) and a surgeon (brother). They have begun to come to terms with what they have become professionally and personally when their aging mother begins to decline after a stroke. Téchiné has called Ma Saison Préférée a film "about individuality and the coldness of the modern world." It earned acclaim when it was screened in competition at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.[10]
Wild Reeds (1994)
The following year, Téchiné had his greatest success to date with
Wild Reeds was a hit at the 1994
Les voleurs (1996)
Further acclaim greeted the director in 1996 with
Alice et Martin (1998)
Téchiné followed this success with
Loin (2001)
Loin (Far) (2001) was shot on digital video. Employing natural light for the most part, it uses a slightly degraded video image to create a sense of collapse and unease. The film is set in Tangier and is told in three "movements", with the sections marked by chapters. The plot turns around three characters: a truck driver importing goods between Morocco and France tempted to cross the strait to Spain smuggling drugs; his young Arab friend desperate to go to Europe; and the driver's Jewish ex-girlfriend who is hesitant about her future migration to Canada. During the three days they are together, fateful decisions must be made.
Strayed (2003)
After two less successful ventures, André Téchiné received acclaim with Strayed (Les égarés) (2003), an adaptation of the novel Le Garçon aux yeux gris, by Gilles Perrault. While Téchiné usually braids together several intersecting stories, this wartime drama traces a single linear tale with only four characters. In 1940, an attractive widow flees Nazi-occupied Paris for the South with her small daughter and teenage son; they are soon joined by a mysterious young man. The foursome find refuge from the war in an abandoned house.
Changing Times (2004)
Changing Times (Les temps qui changent) (2004) is an exploration of cultural collision in contemporary Morocco, oscillating between two worlds and two ideas about the meaning of experience and the enduring power of love. A middle age construction supervisor comes to Tangier to search for the love of his youth, lost many years ago. She is now married and with a grown up son. They eventually cross paths in a supermarket. Téchiné weaves together a half dozen subplots, creating a set of variations on the theme of divided sensibilities tugging one another into states of perpetual unrest and possible happiness.
Les Témoins (2007)
The Girl on the Train (2009)
Impardonnables (2011)
Set in
In the Name of My Daughter (2014)
Like The Girl on the Train, In the Name of My Daughter (L'Homme que l'on aimait trop), is a fictionalized account of true events. In this case, the before and aftermath of the disappearance of a casino heiress, Agnès Le Roux, in 1977. The plot mixes amour fou, mafia wars, dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship and courtroom drama. The world of the French Riviera's casinos and the mafia wars in the 1970s are the background in this retelling of a case that made headlines in France.
The film, based on the memoir Une femme face à la Mafia written by Agnès Le Roux's mother and brother, marked the 7th collaboration between André Téchiné and Catherine Deneuve.
Political views
In December 2023, alongside 50 other filmmakers, Téchiné signed an open letter published in
In February 2024 Francis Renaud accused Téchiné of having sexually harassed him.[15]
Filmography
Year | English title | Original title | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1969 | Paulina is Leaving
|
Paulina s'en va | Original script |
1975 | French Provincial | Souvenirs d'en France | Original script |
1976 | Barocco | Barocco |
|
1979 | The Bronte Sisters
|
Les sœurs Brontë | |
1981 | Hotel America
|
Hôtel des Amériques | |
1983 | La matiouette ou l'arrière-pays | La matiouette | |
1985 | Rendez-vous
|
Rendez-vous |
|
1986 | The Scene of the Crime | Le lieu du crime | |
1987 | The Innocents | Les Innocents |
|
1991 | I Don't Kiss
|
J'embrasse pas |
|
1993 | My Favorite Season | Ma saison préférée | Original script
|
1994 | Wild Reeds | Les roseaux sauvages | Original script
|
1996 | Thieves | Les voleurs | Original script |
1998 | Alice and Martin
|
Alice et Martin | Original script |
2001 | Far | Loin | Original script |
2003 | Strayed | Les égarés | Loosely based on Gilles Perrault's novel The Boy With Grey Eyes |
2004 | Changing Times | Les temps qui changent | Original script |
2007 | The Witnesses | Les Témoins | Original script
|
2009 | The Girl on the Train
|
La fille du RER | Loosely based on Jean-Marie Besset's 2006 play RER |
2011 | Impardonnables
|
Unforgivable | Based on Philippe Djian's novel Unforgivable |
2014 | In the Name of My Daughter | L'Homme que l'on aimait trop | |
2016 | Being 17 | Quand on a 17 ans | Nominated—Berlin International Film Festival - Golden Bear |
2017 | Golden Years | Nos années folles | |
2019 | Farewell to the Night | L'Adieu à la nuit | |
2023 | Soul Mates | Les Âmes sœurs | |
2024 | My New Friends | Les gens d’à côté | World premiere at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival[16] |
Frequent casting
Actor | Paulina is Leaving (1969) |
French Provincial (1975) |
Barocco (1976) |
The Bronte Sisters (1979) |
Hotel America (1981) |
Rendez-vous (1985) |
The Scene of the Crime (1986) |
The Innocents (1987) |
I Don't Kiss (1991) |
My Favorite Season (1993) |
Wild Reeds (1994) |
Thieves (1996) |
Alice and Martin (1998) |
Far (2001) |
Strayed (2003) |
Changing Times (2004) |
The Witnesses (2007) |
The Girl on the Train (2009) |
Impardonnables (2011) |
In the Name of My Daughter (2014) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Emmanuelle Béart | ||||||||||||||||||||
Catherine Deneuve | ||||||||||||||||||||
Jacques Nolot | ||||||||||||||||||||
Marie-France Pisier | ||||||||||||||||||||
Marthe Villalonga |
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h Marshall, André Téchiné, p. 2
- ^ a b c d e f Riding, Finding Cinematic Gold, New York Times, 29 December 1996.
- ^ a b Marshall, André Téchiné, p. 4
- ^ a b Marshall, André Téchiné, p. 5
- ^ Marshall, André Téchiné, p. 3
- ^ Marshall, André Téchiné, p. back cover
- ^ Armstrong et al., The Rough Guide to Film, p. 551
- ^ a b c d e Armstrong et al., The Rough Guide to Film, p. 552
- ^ Philippon, André Téchiné, p. 121
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: My Favorite Season". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on 3 October 2009. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
- ^ Marshall, André Téchiné, p. 81
- ^ "Gaza : des cinéastes du monde entier demandent un cessez-le-feu immédiat". Libération (in French). 28 December 2023. Retrieved 24 January 2024.
- ^ Newman, Nick (29 December 2023). "Claire Denis, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Christian Petzold, Apichatpong Weerasethakul & More Sign Demand for Ceasefire in Gaza". The Film Stage. Retrieved 24 January 2024.
- ^ "Directors of cinema sign petition for immediate ceasefire". The Jerusalem Post. 31 December 2023. Retrieved 24 January 2024.
- ^ "André Téchiné conteste les accusations de Francis Renaud et invoque « une approche maladroite »". Le HuffPost.
- ^ Goodfellow, Melanie (17 January 2024). "Berlinale Unveils Full Panorama, Forum & Generation Line-Ups With New Films By Nathan Silver, Levan Akin, André Téchiné & Bruce LaBruce". Deadline. Retrieved 27 January 2024.
References
- Armstrong, Richard; Charity, Tom; Hughes, Lloyd; Winter, Jessica. The Rough Guide to Film, Rough Guides. ISBN 978-1-84353-408-2.
- Gale Reference Team, André Téchiné, Contemporary Authors, Gale-Thomson.
- Jones, Kent. André Téchine. La Estrastegia de la Tension, 42 Semana Internacional de Cine, Valladolid ISBN 84-87737-23-4.
- Kael, Pauline. "Lion-Hearted Women", Review of French Provincial (Souvenirs d'en France), The New Yorker, 1 March 1976, also in book When the Lights Go Down.
- Marshall, Bill. André Téchiné, Manchester University Press, 2007. ISBN 0-7190-5831-7.
- Milicia, Joseph. Téchiné, André in International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers. Vol. 2: Directors. St. James Press, 2001. ISBN 1-55862-477-5.
- Philippon, Alain, André Téchiné, Difussion Seuil,1988, ISBN 2-86642-066-7.
- Rees-Roberts, Nick, French Queer Cinema, Edinburgh University Press, 2008, ISBN 0-7486-3418-5.
- Riding, Alan. Finding Cinematic Gold in the Dysfunctional Family, The New York Times, 29 December 1996.
- White, Armond. Strange Gifts: Andre Techine Remakes the Melodrama, Film Comment, July/August 1995.
External links
- André Téchiné at IMDb
- Allociné
- bdfci