Death of François Dupeyron, director of “The Officer’s Ward” – Le Monde

Le Monde | 02/25/2016 at 12:19 • Updated 02/25/2016 at 3:44 p.m. | By Thomas Sotinel

His family announced on Thursday 25 February, the death of filmmaker François Dupeyron, following a long illness. He was 65. Very prolific director – nine feature films between 1988 and 2013 – he made his debut with two superstars, Gérard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve in Strange place for a meeting , but had preferred to continue his journey to the margins of french cinema, crossing once the recognition of the public and professionals with the officer’s Ward in 2001.

François Dupeyron born Tartas in the Landes, 14 August 1950. in the years following May 68, he is a student at Idhec (Institute of Advanced cinematographic studies) activist and filmmaker, forming with Richard Copans, Jean-Pierre Thorn and others the collective Cinélutte filming the workers, at work or fight. Meanwhile, the young man trying to theatrical staging, produces corporate videos and short films.

Filmmaker hypersensitive

he expects 1988 to direct his first feature film. Strange Place for a meeting the following to the letter the program of its title: the two biggest stars of French cinema, Depardieu and Deneuve, stranded on a highway rest area, space in which the film remain confined. Filming is difficult, hypersensitive young director struggling to control his players. Still, the film is a success and seems to open the door to the quality of French cinema, particularly as Dupeyron has Cleitman producer René, one of the dominant figures of the industry in the 1980s.

However, his next film, a beating heart (1991), takes a different path. It is also the story of a romantic encounter. This time the venue – line 2 of the Paris metro – nothing extraordinary, and performers, Dominique Faysse (also co-writer) and Thierry Fortineau, are unknown, the film sticks daily. Criticism is laudatory, but the public stands on the sidelines, and François Dupeyron again waits three years before moving on to his next film, Machine , a variation on the theme of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , with Gérard Depardieu and Didier Bourdon.

In 1999, the filmmaker turns What is life? , chronicle of despair farmer, Eric Caravaca, Darroussin and Jacques Dufilho. The first plays a farmer who is reluctant to stay on the family farm, one of the roles that reveal. But the film, like the previous two, is a commercial failure.

Also screenwriter and novelist

However, in 2001, François Dupeyron manages to turn the officer’s Ward with the necessary means for a pageant. Finding Eric Caravaca in the lead role, he portrays this veteran of the First World War, disfigured by injury, trying to put the pieces of his life. Also starring André Dussollier, Sabine Azéma and Denis Podalydès, The House of officers, adapted from the novel by Marc Dugain, is in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated six times in 2002. The Caesars next movie seems to pursue this path. Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran was inspired by a book signed Schmitt, is played by a star, Omar Sharif, and competing for the Golden Lion at the 2003 Venice Film Festival Venice, but meets only very modest success.

followed then Inguélézi (2004), directed in a hurry without much means, which tells the encounter between a French and a Kurdish refugee who wants to cross the Channel, and Help yourself and heaven will help you (2008), family comedy that pays tribute to the efforts of a mother family (Felicity Wouassi) to maintain the cohesion of his tribe, housed in a city suburb

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the latest film by François Dupeyron, My soul by you cured , with Grégory Gadebois and Céline Sallette, was released in September 2013. the story of Fredi, healer despite him who meets a young woman alcoholic, mixed “realistic tradition deeply rooted in French cinema” and “a romantic dimension, more fantastic,” in the words of Jean-François Rauger

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Besides his career director François Dupeyron wrote for other directors (Nicole Garcia in 1994 – The preferred Son – Frédéric Auburtin and Gérard Depardieu in 1999 – A bridge between two shores – Yves Angelo in 2015 – the closer to the sun ) and readers (he is the author of several novels, including Inguélézi (Actes Sud, 2004) Every man for himself, God cares (Editions Léo Scheer, 2009).