René Féret

René Féret was born in La Bassée, France in 1945. He was born into a modest family in northern France who ran a small business. He was affected from an early age by the shadow of a brother whose death at the age of four had preceded his birth, called René. His father died when Féret was 22, and Féret then attempted suicide, which led to his being sent to a psychiatric hospital. He drew on this experience for his film, Histoire de Paul in 1975.

Féret's film Solemn Communion was entered into the 1977 Cannes Film Festival. In The Man Who Wasn't There (L'Homme qui n'était pas là), his 1987 film adaption of Roderick MacLeish's novel, he played alongside Claude Jade in the leading role of Charles Elaine. Very much an independent creator, Féret made several films around an invented family living in northern France, the Gravets, but based on his own life experience. He often used members of his own family in his films. Féret also turned to marginalised individuals in trouble: a man sent to a psychiatric hospital in Histoire de Paul (1975), a hermaphrodite in Mystère Alexina, the elderly in Rue du Retrait (2000) and cancer sufferers in Comme une étoile dans la nuit (2009). Later in his career, he turned his attention to historical artistic figures with the films Nannerl, la sœur de Mozart (Mozart's Sister, 2010) and Anton Tchékhov 1890 (2015). His work was described as "subtle and possessing great sensibility".

Féret died in Paris on 28 April 2015, aged 69.