Barbet Schroeder | |
---|---|
Born | Tehran, Iran | 26 August 1941
Citizenship | Switzerland |
Occupation(s) | Director, producer |
Spouse | Bulle Ogier |
Barbet Schroeder (born 26 August 1941) is an Iranian-born Swiss film director and producer who started his career in French cinema in the 1960s, working with directors of the French New Wave such as Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer.
Schroeder started his career producing such films as The Bakery Girl of Monceau (1962), Six in Paris (1965), and Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974). He then transitioned into directing films such as More (1969), La Vallée (1972) and Barfly (1987), the last of which was nominated for the Palme d'Or. He also gained recognition for directing the documentary Koko: A Talking Gorilla (1978). He directed what he labeled, "The Trilogy of Evil", which includes the films, General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait (1974), Terror's Advocate (2007) and The Venerable W. (2016).
He directed the drama Reversal of Fortune (1990) and earned a nomination for Academy Award for Best Director. He then directed many big budget Hollywood films, often mixing melodrama with the thriller genre in films like Single White Female (1992), Kiss of Death (1995), Desperate Measures (1998) and Murder by Numbers (2002). He also acted in Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), Mars Attacks! (1996) and The Darjeeling Limited (2007).
Schroeder was born in Tehran, Iran, the son of Ursula, a German physician, and Jean-William Schroeder, a Swiss geologist. [1] [2] From ages 6 to 11, he lived in Colombia where his father worked. Both he and his family then left for France, where he studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.
Schroeder's production company Les Films du Losange, founded by him at age 23, produced some of the best-known films of the French New Wave. His directorial debut, More (1969), about heroin addiction, became a hit in Europe. Pink Floyd wrote music for this movie and released the album, More . They also wrote the soundtrack for his 1972 film La Vallée , released as the album Obscured by Clouds .
He later went on to direct more mainstream Hollywood fare, such as Barfly (1987) starring Mickey Rourke, Single White Female (1992) and Reversal of Fortune (1990), for which Jeremy Irons as Claus von Bülow received an Academy Award. Despite his many commercially successful films, Schroeder continues to be interested in making smaller films with a more limited audience, such as the adaptation of Colombian writer Fernando Vallejo's controversial novel La virgen de los sicarios (2000) or the documentary General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait (1974), featuring extensive interviews with the Ugandan dictator and Terror's Advocate (2007) about terrorism in the last fifty years, seen through the eyes of a lawyer, Jacques Vergès, and his clients.
Schroeder has also made some appearances as an actor: playing one of the 'ghosts' in Jacques Rivette's Céline et Julie vont en bateau (Céline and Julie Go Boating), a cameo as a Porsche driver in Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), as the President of France in Mars Attacks! (1996), as a hair products salesman in Paris, je t'aime (2006) and as the mechanic in The Darjeeling Limited (2007). Today, he resides in France and is married to actress Bulle Ogier.
In 2009, Schroeder signed a petition in support of film director Roman Polanski, calling for his release after Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in relation to his 1977 charge for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl. [3]
Schroeder directed the 12th episode of the third season of the American dramatic television series Mad Men that first aired on 1 November 2009. The episode was entitled "The Grown Ups", and was notable for its depiction of the events of the Kennedy assassination.
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1964 | Nadja in Paris | No | No | Yes | Directed by Eric Rohmer |
1969 | More | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
1972 | La Vallée | Yes | Yes | No | |
1974 | General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait | Yes | Yes | No | Documentary film |
1975 | Maîtresse | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
1978 | Koko: A Talking Gorilla | Yes | Yes | Yes | Documentary film |
1984 | Cheaters (Tricheurs) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Un joueur (uncredited) |
1985 | The Charles Bukowski Tapes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Documentary film; also editor |
1987 | Barfly | Yes | No | Yes | |
1990 | Reversal of Fortune | Yes | No | No | |
1992 | Single White Female | Yes | No | Yes | |
1995 | Kiss of Death | Yes | No | Yes | |
1996 | Before and After | Yes | No | Yes | |
1998 | Desperate Measures | Yes | No | Yes | |
2000 | La virgen de los sicarios | Yes | No | Yes | |
2002 | Murder by Numbers | Yes | No | Yes | |
2007 | Terror's Advocate | Yes | No | Yes | Documentary film, also narrator |
2008 | Inju: The Beast in the Shadow | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
2015 | Amnesia | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
2017 | The Venerable W. | Yes | No | Yes | |
2023 | Ricardo and Painting | Yes | No | Yes | |
As an Actor
Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1963 | The Bakery Girl of Monceau | car salesman | Eric Rohmer | also producer |
1965 | Six in Paris | Jean-Pierre | Jean Rouch | Segment: "Gare du Nord" also producer |
1971 | Out 1 | Gian-Reto | Jacques Rivette | |
1972 | Out 1: Spectre | |||
1974 | Celine and Julie Go Boating | Olivier | Also producer | |
1979 | Roberta | Vittorio | Pierre Zucca | |
La Mémoire courte | Un invité au dîner | Eduardo de Gregorio | ||
1984 | Love on the Ground | Audience | Jacque Rivette | uncredited |
1990 | The Golden Boat | Mean Passer-by | Raúl Ruiz | |
1994 | La Reine Margot | an advisor | Patrice Chéreau | |
Beverly Hills Cop III | Man in Porsche | John Landis | ||
1996 | Mars Attacks! | Maurice, the French President | Tim Burton | |
2004 | Ne fais pas ça! | Un client du restaurant #1 | Luc Bondy | |
2005 | Une aventure | Dr. Idelman | Xavier Giannoli | |
2006 | Paris, je t'aime | Monsieur Henny | Christopher Doyle | Segment: "Porte de Choisy" |
2007 | The Duchess of Langeais | Duc de Grandlieu | Jacques Rivette | |
The Darjeeling Limited | The Mechanic | Wes Anderson | ||
2011 | L'avocat | Jacques Meco | Cédric Anger | |
2012 | Le grand soir | Jacques Meco | Benoît Delépine Gustave Kervern | |
2014 | Portrait of the Artist | Le médecin | Antoine Barraud | final film role |
Year | Title | Director | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2009 | Mad Men | Yes | Episode: "The Grown-Ups" |
Idi Amin Dada Oumee was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern world history.
Jacques Rivette was a French film director and film critic most commonly associated with the French New Wave and the film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. He made twenty-nine films, including L'Amour fou (1969), Out 1 (1971), Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974), and La Belle Noiseuse (1991). His work is noted for its improvisation, loose narratives, and lengthy running times.
More is a 1969 English-language romantic drama film written and directed by Barbet Schroeder in his directorial debut. Starring Mimsy Farmer and Klaus Grünberg, the film deals with heroin addiction as drug fascination on the island of Ibiza, Spain. Made in the political fallout of the 1960s counterculture, it features drug use, "free love", and other references to contemporary European youth culture.
Céline and Julie Go Boating is a 1974 French film directed by Jacques Rivette. The film stars Dominique Labourier as Julie and Juliet Berto as Céline.
Barfly is a 1987 American black comedy film directed by Barbet Schroeder and starring Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway. The film is a semi-autobiography of poet/author Charles Bukowski during the time he spent drinking heavily in Los Angeles, and it presents Bukowski's alter ego Henry Chinaski. The screenplay, written by Bukowski, was commissioned by the Iranian-born Swiss film director Barbet Schroeder, and it was published in 1984, when film production was still pending.
Louis Garrel is a French actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his starring role in The Dreamers, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. He has regularly appeared in films by French director Christophe Honoré, including Ma Mère, Dans Paris, Love Songs, The Beautiful Person and Making Plans for Lena. He has also been in films directed by his father, Philippe Garrel, including Regular Lovers, Frontier of the Dawn, A Burning Hot Summer, and Jealousy.
Bulle Ogier is a French actress and screenwriter.
General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait is a 1974 documentary film by French director Barbet Schroeder with English dialogue. It was made with the support and participation of its subject, the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. The film depicts Amin at the height of his power as the ruler of Uganda.
Hollywood is a 1989 novel by Charles Bukowski which fictionalizes his experiences writing the screenplay for the film Barfly and taking part in its tumultuous journey to the silver screen. It is narrated in the first person.
Les Films du Losange, also known as Le Losange, is a film production, film distribution and international sales company founded by Barbet Schroeder and Éric Rohmer in 1962.
Rugby union in Uganda has been played since colonial times when it was introduced by the British. The governing body is the Uganda Rugby Football Union.
The Duchess of Langeais is a 2007 French-Italian period drama film directed by Jacques Rivette. Its original French title is Ne touchez pas la hache. It is based on the 1834 novel of the same name by Honoré de Balzac. The film stars Jeanne Balibar and Guillaume Depardieu as lovers in the 1820s, who are involved in a tormented and frustrating relationship.
Nicole Lubtchansky was a French film editor who worked primarily with director Jacques Rivette. She edited twenty of Rivette's films, starting with 1969's L'amour fou and concluding with 2009's Around a Small Mountain. In between, Lubtchansky edited such acclaimed Rivette films as Celine and Julie Go Boating, Love on the Ground and La Belle Noiseuse.
Jacques Rivette was a French film director, screenwriter and film critic. He wrote and directed twenty feature films, including the two-part Joan the Maiden, eight short films and a three-part television documentary. He also acted in small roles and participated in documentaries. After making his first short film, Aux quatre coins, in his hometown of Rouen, Rivette moved to Paris in 1949 to pursue a career in filmmaking. While attending film screenings at Henri Langlois' Cinémathèque Française and other ciné-clubs he gradually befriended many future members of the French New Wave, including François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Éric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol. Rivette's association with this group of young cinephiles led to the start of both his filmmaking career and his work in film criticism. In collaboration with his new friends, Rivette made two more short films and worked as a cinematographer and editor on films by Rohmer and Truffaut. He also worked in small roles and as an assistant director to Jean Renoir on French Cancan and Jacques Becker on Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. During this period he began writing film criticism for the magazine Gazette du Cinéma and later Cahiers du Cinéma, and was one of the most respected writers by his peers.
Amnesia is a 2015 Swiss-French drama film directed by Barbet Schroeder. It was selected to screen in the Special Screenings section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.
Jacques Rivette was a French film director and film critic most commonly associated with the French New Wave and the film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. He made twenty-nine films, including L'amour fou (1969), Out 1 (1971), Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974), and La Belle Noiseuse (1991). His work is noted for its improvisation, loose narratives, and lengthy running times.
Surreal Estate is a 1976 French mystery film directed by Argentine filmmaker Eduardo de Gregorio, who is best known for his screenwriting work with Jacques Rivette.
Saïd Ben Saïd is a Tunisian-French film producer.
The Venerable W. is a 2016 documentary film by Swiss director Barbet Schroeder. It is his last film in his "Trilogy of Evil" which already consists of General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait (1974) and Terror's Advocate (2007). Schroeder explores the daily occurrences of racism and Islamophobia within Burmese society and how Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu inflames the hatred within Myanmar's Buddhist majority population towards its Muslim minority through his rhetoric, which has catalysed riots and religious tensions.