Jean-Jacques Beineix
Jean-Jacques Beineix (lang; 8 October 1946 – 13 January 2022) was a French film director best known for the films Diva and Betty Blue. His work is regarded as a prime example of the cinéma du look film movement in France.
Jean-Jacques Beineix

Markus3 (Marc ROUSSEL) · Self-photographed · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Name
- Jean-Jacques Beineix
- Born
- 8 October 1946
- Birthplace
- Paris, France
- Died
- 13 January 2022
- Occupation
- Film director
- Nationality
- France
- Fields
- film direction · film screenwriting · film production · creative and professional writing
- Education
- Lycée Carnot · Lycée Condorcet
- Known for
- Betty Blue · Diva
- Honours
- César Award
- Languages
- French
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Jean-Jacques Beineix (lang; 8 October 1946 – 13 January 2022) was a French film director best known for the films Diva and Betty Blue. His work is regarded as a prime example of the cinéma du look film movement in France.
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wikidata · Q505626 · wikipedia · Jean-Jacques Beineix
In this article
Biography
Biography
Jean-Jacques Beineix studied at Lycée Carnot and Lycée Condorcet. The recorded working language is French. The field of work recorded is film direction, film screenwriting and film production. Positions recorded include president. Works named in the authority record are Betty Blue and Diva. Distinctions recorded are César Award.

Jean-Jacques Beineix, à Amiens (France) - Le réalisateur arrive à la "Maison de la Culture" lors du « 26ème Festival international du film d'Amiens » pour un entretien avec le public à l'occasion de la sortie de son ouvrage.
Markus3 (Marc ROUSSEL) · Self-photographed

Jean-Jacques Beineix, à Amiens (France) - Le réalisateur est à la "Maison de la Culture" lors du « 26ème Festival international du film d'Amiens » pour un entretien avec le public à l'occasion de la sortie de son ouvrage. A gauche, Jean-Pierre Bergeon.
Markus3 (Marc ROUSSEL) · Self-photographed
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Jean-Jacques Beineix • Born — 8 October 1946 • Birthplace — Paris, France • Died — 13 January 2022 • Place of death — Paris, France • Occupation — Film director • Years Active — 1977–2022
Early life and education
Early life and education
Jean-Jacques Beineix was the son of Robert Beineix, director of an insurance company, and wife Madeleine Maréchal. He was a student at both the Lycée Carnot and Lycée Condorcet in Paris. After earning his baccalaureat, he enrolled in medical school, but dropped out after the events of May 1968. He took the competitive entrance exam for the Paris film school Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC), but failed it (his final rank was 21st).
Career
Career
Jean-Jacques Beineix began his career in 1964 as Jean Becker's assistant director on the popular French TV series Les Saintes chéries. He remained with the series for three years. In 1970, he worked for Claude Berri and, the following year, for Claude Zidi. In 1972, he was second assistant director on the Jerry Lewis drama The Day the Clown Cried. In 1977, Beineix directed his first short movie, Le Chien de M. Michel, which won first prize at the Trouville Festival. In 1980, Beineix directed his first feature film, Diva, which received four Césars. The film was also entered in the 12th Moscow International Film Festival. Diva is considered the first film of what was later described as the cinéma du look. Film critic Ginette Vincendeau described the films made by Beineix and others as "youth-oriented films with high production values.... The look of the cinéma du look refers to the films' high investment in non-naturalistic, self-conscious aesthetics, notably intense colours and lighting effects. Their spectacular (studio based) and technically brilliant mise-en-scène is usually put to the service of romantic plots." The cinéma du look also included the films of Luc Besson and Léos Carax. His second feature, Moon in the Gutter, was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1983 Cannes Festival. Nominated for three Césars in 1984, it would win one award in the Best Production Design category. In 1986, Beineix directed Betty Blue (original title: 37°2 le matin), in which Béatrice Dalle and Jean-Hugues Anglade starred. In 1987, it was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, in the same category as that year's British Academy Film Awards and Golden Globes. It won the 1986 Montréal World Film Festival's Grand Prix des Amériques and Most Popular Film awards and, in 1987, the Boston Society of Film Critics award for best foreign language film. It also received the Best Poster award, one of nine Césars for which it was nominated. Beineix directed Roselyne and the Lions in 1989, IP5: L'île aux pachydermes in 1992, and Mortel Transfert in 2001. The 1992 Seattle International Film Festival awarded Beineix its Golden Space Needle Award for Best Director for both Betty Blue and IP5: L'île aux pachydermes. • Illustration — Jean-Jacques Beineix, Étoiles d'or du cinéma français, (February 2009) In 1984 Beineix formed his own production company, Cargo Films, in order to retain his artistic independence. Betty Blue (37°2 le matin) was his first film produced by Cargo, and he became executive producer of all its projects. The company produces feature films and documentaries on a wide variety of themes from science to art, to women's rights and social problems. He worked in partnership with national scientific organizations such as CNES and CNRS to produce documentaries. In 2008, Beineix directed a corporate film for CNRS, 2 infinities (L2i). It was shown at the October 2008 New York Imagine Science film festival.
Personal life
Personal life
Beineix was married to his wife, Agnès. He had one child, daughter Frida, from his previous relationship with actress Valentina Sauca. In 2006, Beineix published a first volume of his autobiography, Les Chantiers de la gloire (in French only). The title alluded to the French title of Stanley Kubrick's film Les Sentiers de la gloire (Paths of Glory). Beineix died from leukemia at his home in Paris on 13 January 2022, at the age of 75.
Filmography
Filmography
• 1977 - Le Chien de Monsieur Michel - short movie • 1981 - Diva - starring Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, Frédéric Andréi • 1983 - Moon in the Gutter - starring Gérard Depardieu, Nastassja Kinski • 1986 - Betty Blue - starring Jean-Hugues Anglade, Béatrice Dalle • 1989 - Roselyne and the Lions - starring Isabelle Pasco, Philippe Clévenot • 1992 - Les Enfants de Roumanie - documentary • 1992 - IP5: L'île aux pachydermes - starring Yves Montand, Olivier Martinez • 1994 - Otaku: fils de l'empire du virtuel - documentary • 1994 - Place Clichy sans complexe - documentary • 1997 - Assigné à résidence - documentary • 2001 - Mortel transfert - starring Jean-Hugues Anglade, Hélène de Fougerolles
Career and activity
Career and activity
Jean-Jacques Beineix worked in film direction, film screenwriting, film production and creative and professional writing. Recorded position is president.
Identity
Identity
Jean-Jacques Beineix is recorded as screenwriter, film producer, novelist, writer and director.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
Explore 1946–2022
The full dated record · 3 entries
1946
Jean-Jacques Beineix born at Paris.
1986
Betty Blue - Jean Jacques Beineix - 1986 sub ita-eng (2025) is digitised and catalogued by Internet Archive.
2022
Jean-Jacques Beineix died at 18th arrondissement of Paris.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Paris.
Birth place
18th arrondissement of Paris.
Death place
Literature
Literature
Literature
Foreword by Jean Jacques Beineix, Jean-Jacques Beineix, 2019
Beineix in context, Jean-Jacques Beineix, 2019
The use of classical music in Jean-Jacques Beineix's Diva and Roselyne et les lions, Musicologica Brunensia, 2026
Scholarly footprint
Literature
Scholarly footprint
A count of publications is evidence of attention, not of standing, and is given here only as a measure.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
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Secondary witness
People, houses and institutions
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People, houses and institutions
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Born at
1- ParisPlace
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 15 August 2026.
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