Death of Maurice Pialat

by Fabien Lemercier

13/01/2003 - The French director, winner of the Palme d'Or in 1987, dies in Paris at the age of 77, and leaves an important and controversial legacy. Tributes from the French President

The death in Paris of French film director Maurice Pialat on 10 January has resulted in a flood of tributes pouring in from his peers and members of the French government and representatives of film institutions. Pialat, who was 77, famously won the Palme d’Or in 1987 with Sous le soleil de Satan (Under Satan’s Sun) starring Gèrard Depardieu and Sandrine Bonnaire, and enjoyed a long and illustrious career characterised by an almost brutally anti-conformist stance.
After graduating in fine art, Pialat made his first feature film, L’enfance nue, in 1967. Fame came in 1972 with Nous ne viellirons pas ensemble (We Will Not Grow Old Together). His most memorable film is however the extraordinary Van Gogh (1991) starring Jacques Dutronce. although Pialat will also be remembered for Loulou (1980), the first film of a fresh young talented actress called Sandrine Bonnaire, and the 1985 Police, starring Sophie Marceau.
Tributes to Maurice Pialat came flooding in, first and foremost from French president Jacques Chirac, who said Pialat was a “master of the art of making films” while David Kessler. head of the National Film Centre called him a “genial writer and film director”. Film producer and president of Unifrance, Daniel Toscan du Plantier called Pialat "Jean Renoir's heir". On the receiving end of considerable controversy in life, Pialat is being universally homaged in death. He was famously derided with catcalls when he won the Palme d’Or in Cannes in 1987, but received this ill-timed criticism with elegance, “even if you don’t love me, I love you”.
French culture minister Jean-Jacques Aillagon said this was typical of Pialat, who was known for being extremely stubborn. “If French cinema today has the status of an auteur-driven art, then our gratitude goes to artists like Maurice Pialat.”