Patrice Leconte

Leconte grew up in Tours, and began making little amateur films at 15. He went to Paris in 1967 and studied at Institut des hautes études cinématographiques. While attending film school in the late 1960s, Leconte also worked as a cartoonist, in particular for comics magazine Pilote. In 1976, Leconte directed his first feature film, Les vécés étaient fermés de l'intérieur, a parody of crime films, scripted by Pilote author Gotlib and starring Jean Rochefort and Coluche. The film was a commercial failure. In 1978, Leconte found success by directing the comedy troupe of Le Splendid in French Fried Vacation (Les Bronzés) based on one of their own plays. The film was a major commercial hit in France. Leconte then directed the sequel, French Fried Vacation 2, followed by three other successful comedies. Leconte remained associated with Le Splendid by working with troupe member Michel Blanc, who starred in his films and co-wrote the scripts with him. In 1985, Leconte changed register and directed the action film Les Spécialistes, which was another box-office hit. In 1987, Leconte changed tone again by directing and writing with Patrick Dewolf the melancholic comedy drama Tandem, starring Jean Rochefort and an actor from Le Splendid troupe, Gérard Jugnot, who played his first serious role. In 1989, in a more radical departure from his previous work, he again directed a Le Splendid actor, this time Michel Blanc, in a dramatic role, in the crime drama Monsieur Hire. The latter film was shown at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival and helped Leconte gain international attention Although he had already directed more than half a dozen features, many foreign critics, unfamiliar with his previous work, essentially treated him as a newcomer. Since then, he has alternated between films such as Ridicule and L'homme du train which have had success in the international arthouse market, and others, like Les Grands Ducs, destined to the French mainstream market. In the 2000s, Patrice Leconte received more recognition in the United States with the successful United States releases of Girl on the Bridge, The Widow of Saint-Pierre, Man on the Train and Intimate Strangers (Paramount Classics released three of these films in the United States). Ryan Mottesheard of IndieWIRE wrote: "you could even argue that no other foreign filmmaker (INCLUDING Pedro Almodóvar) has had as strong of an impact on United States arthouses." An English language remake of Leconte's film Man on the Train was remade by an independent Hollywood studio in 2011, and two others are in 'development': Intimate Strangers and My Best Friend. In 2006, he directed French Fried Vacation 3, with the former members of Le Splendid troupe reprising their roles 27 years after the first sequel. The film was another box-office success in France. Patrice Leconte's film, The Suicide Shop, was screened at the Newport Beach Film Festival in Newport Beach, California, on 28 April and 2 May 2013. Also in 2013, he directed his first English-language film, A Promise.