Maurice Pialat

This earned him the disregard of some critics, but also enduring popularity, with films characterized by a psychological narrative style, often set outside the metropolises.

The recorded working language is French. The field of work recorded is cinematography. Works named in the authority record are Naked Childhood, Loulou, We Won't Grow Old Together, À Nos Amours, Under the Sun of Satan and Van Gogh. Work by Maurice Pialat is recorded in the collections of Museum of Modern Art and Harvard Film Archive. Distinctions recorded are Louis Delluc Prize, César Award for Best Film and Palme d'Or.

• Name — Maurice Pialat • Born — 31 August 1925 • Birthplace — Cunlhat, France • Died — 11 January 2003 • Place of death — Paris, France • Occupation — Film director, screenwriter

Pialat was born in Cunlhat, Puy-de-Dôme, France. He originally intended to become a painter, but met with little success. Having acquired a camera at age 16, he tried his hand at documentary films before making his first notable short, L'amour existe, in 1960. Pialat came to filmmaking late. He directed his feature-length debut, 1969's L'enfance nue (The Naked Childhood) at age 43. The film, which was co-produced by French New Wave director François Truffaut, won the Prix Jean Vigo. During his 35-year career, Pialat completed ten major features, many of which—most notably Loulou—have been interpreted as autobiographical. He directed Gérard Depardieu in four films: Loulou, Police, Sous le soleil de Satan (Under the Sun of Satan), for which Pialat won the Palme d'Or at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, and Le Garçu (1995). In a posthumous tribute written for the French film magazine Positif, critic Noël Herpe called Pialat's style "a naturalism that was born of formalism". In English-language film criticism, he is often compared to his American contemporary John Cassavetes. Summarizing Pialat's stance as a filmmaker in a profile for Film Comment, critic Kent Jones wrote: "To say that Pialat marched to the beat of a different drummer is to put it mildly. In fact, he didn't really march at all. He ambled, and fuck anybody who got it into their head that they'd like to amble along with him. Or behind him. Or ahead of him."

Pialat's films are often noted for their loose yet rigorous style and for their elliptical editing and long takes. Describing the unique aesthetics of Pialat's work, film critic Kent Jones wrote: "More than Cassavetes, more than Renoir, Pialat wanted every frame of celluloid bearing his name to be marked by the here and the now. [...] He was always willing to bend his narratives around experience. And the frequent ruptures, discontinuities, perspective shifts, and ellipses in his work are less single-minded than those of Cassavetes, more far-reaching in their implications."

• Le jeu de la nuit (1957) • This Man Must Die (1969) - Le commissaire de police Constant • My Little Loves (1974) - Ami d'Henri • Les lolos de Lola (1976) - Le vendeur d'outils • À Nos Amours (1983) - Le père • Under the Sun of Satan (1987) - Menou-Segrais (final film role)

Maurice Pialat is recorded as having received Louis Delluc Prize, César Award for Best Film and Palme d'Or. Recorded at birth as Maurice Roland Pialat.

• L'enfance nue (1968) • La maison des bois (1971, TV mini-series) • We Won't Grow Old Together (Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble) (1972) • The Mouth Agape (La gueule ouverte) (1974) • Graduate First (Passe ton bac d'abord) (1978) • Loulou (1980) • À nos amours (1983) • Police (1985) • Under the Sun of Satan (Sous le soleil de Satan) (1987) • Van Gogh (1991) • Le Garçu (1995)

• Drôles de bobines (1957) • L'Ombre familière (1958) • L'amour existe (1960) • Janine (1961) • Maître Galip (1962) • Jardins d'Arabie (1963) • Byzance (1964) • Pehlivan (1964)