Francis Veber | |
---|---|
![]() Veber in 2012 | |
Born | Francis Paul Veber 28 July 1937 |
Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter, producer; theater playwright |
Spouse | Francoise Veber |
Awards | Academy Award nominee, La cage aux folles César Award winner, Le dîner de cons , and four-time nominee Lumière Film Award winner, Le dîner de cons |
Francis Paul Veber (born 28 July 1937) is a French film director, screenwriter and producer, and playwright. [1] He has written and directed both French and American films. Nine French-language films with which he has been involved, as either writer or director or both, have been remade as English-language Hollywood films: Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire (as The Man with One Red Shoe ), L'emmerdeur (as Buddy Buddy ), La Cage aux Folles (as The Birdcage ), Le Jouet (as The Toy ), Les Compères (as Fathers' Day ), La chèvre (as Pure Luck ), Les Fugitifs (as Three Fugitives ), Le dîner de cons (as Dinner for Schmucks ) and La Doublure (as The Valet ). He also wrote the screenplay for My Father the Hero , the 1994 American remake of the French-language film Mon père, ce héros .
Some of his screenplays started as theater plays (for instance, Le dîner de cons ). This theatrical experience contributes to his films' tight structure, resulting in what has been called "marvels of economy". [2]
Many of his French comedies feature recurring types of characters, named François Pignon (a bungler) and François Perrin (a bully).
![]() | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2014) |
Veber was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, the son of a writer mother and Pierre-Gilles Veber, a screenwriter. Veber's father was Jewish and his mother was Armenian-Russian (Veber was baptized at birth). [3] [4] His grand-uncle was writer Tristan Bernard. [5]
His parents were both authors: his father writer and journalist Pierre-Gilles Véber and his mother novelist Catherine Agadjanian, who wrote under the name Georgette Paul (1901-1990). He is the great-nephew of playwright, novelist, journalist and lawyer Tristan Bernard, grandson of playwright Pierre Véber and nephew of screenwriter, director and hit songwriter Serge Veber. He is the uncle of Sophie Audouin-Mamikonian, young adult author of the Tara Duncan series. His son, Jean Véber, is also a screenwriter.
Pierre Richard is a French actor, film director and screenwriter, best known for the roles of a clumsy daydreamer in comedy films. Pierre Richard is considered by many, such as Louis de Funès and Gérard Depardieu, to be one of the greatest and most talented French comedians in the last 50 years. He is also a film director and occasional singer.
Christian Jean-Marie Clavier is a French actor, screenwriter, film producer and director. He became widely popular after starring in two hit comedy series: Patrice Leconte's Les Bronzés and Les Visiteurs directed by Jean-Marie Poiré. He furthered his popularity by taking a role of Asterix in the screen adaptations of the comic books by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny.
Ticky Holgado, pseudonym of Joseph Holgado, was a French actor and a frequent collaborator with Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
Vladimir Cosma is a Romanian composer, conductor and violinist.
Gad Elmaleh is a Moroccan-Canadian stand-up comedian and actor who achieved fame in France, Morocco and the United States. He is best known in the French-speaking world and more recently in the United States.
Édouard Molinaro was a French film director and screenwriter.
Three Fugitives is a 1989 American buddy crime-comedy film written and directed by Francis Veber, starring Nick Nolte and Martin Short, with supporting roles by Sarah Doroff, James Earl Jones, Alan Ruck, and Kenneth McMillan in his final film appearance. It is a remake of Les Fugitifs, a 1986 French comedy starring Gérard Depardieu and Pierre Richard also directed by Veber.
Les Compères is a 1983 French comedy film written and directed by Francis Veber, and starring Gérard Depardieu, Pierre Richard and Anny Duperey. The film had 4,847,229 admissions in France.
The Valet is a 2006 comedy film written and directed by Francis Veber and starring Gad Elmaleh, Alice Taglioni, Daniel Auteuil and Kristin Scott Thomas. The film is about a parking valet who is enlisted to pretend to be the lover of a famous fashion model in order to deflect attention from her relationship with a married businessman. The film enjoyed box office success in France and the United States.
La Chèvre is a 1981 French buddy cop comedy film written and directed by Francis Veber, starring Pierre Richard and Gérard Depardieu. It is the first of three films featuring Richard and Depardieu as a comic duo.
The 9th César Awards ceremony, presented by the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma, honoured the best French films of 1983 and took place on 3 March 1984 at the Théâtre de l'Empire in Paris. The ceremony was chaired by Gene Kelly and hosted by Léon Zitrone. Le Bal and À nos amours tied for the award for Best Film.
Pierre-François Martin-Laval is a French actor, film director, screenwriter and theatre director. PEF is well known in France for his acting performances in musical comedy but also in serious plays. He studied at the famous French school of acting Cours Florent. During his drama studies he met the friends with whom he formed the comedy team 'Les Robins des Bois' in 1996. Initially called The Royal Imperial Green Rabbit Company, they renamed themselves after their first significant success, a play entitled Robins des bois.
La Cage aux Folles is a 1973 French farce by Jean Poiret centering on confusion that ensues when Laurent, the son of a Saint Tropez night club owner and his gay lover, brings his fiancée's ultraconservative parents for dinner. The original French production premièred at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal on 1 February 1973 and ran for almost 1,800 performances. The principal roles were played by Jean Poiret and Michel Serrault. A French-Italian film of the play was made in 1978 In 1983, Poiret's play was adapted in the United States as a musical with a book by Harvey Fierstein and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman and later remade as the American film The Birdcage. A new translation by actor Simon Callow was premiered at the Park Theatre (London) in 2020.
Paul Michel Audiard was a French screenwriter and film director, known for his witty, irreverent and slang-laden dialogues which made him a prominent figure on the French cultural scene of the 1960s and 1970s. He was the father of French film director Jacques Audiard.
Alain Poiré was a French film producer and screenwriter. He was born in Paris, and died in Neuilly-Sur-Seine.
L'emmerdeur is a 1973 French-Italian black comedy film starring Jacques Brel, appearing in his tenth and final feature film. Directed by Édouard Molinaro and co-starring Lino Ventura, Caroline Cellier, and Jean-Pierre Darras, L'emmerdeur is an adaptation of Francis Veber's 1971 play Le contrat.
Les Fugitifs is a French 1986 comedy film, directed by Francis Veber. It was remade in 1989 as Three Fugitives, also directed by Veber.
Robert Dalban was a French actor. His work included stage acting, roles in TV shows and dubbing American stars. Moreover, he was a fixture in French cinema for many decades.
Claire Maurier is a French actress who has appeared in more than 90 films since 1947.