Serge Toubiana, president of Unifrance, pays tribute to the screenwriter and actor Jean-Claude Carrière, who passed away on February 8, 2021 aged 89.
Jean-Claude Carrière died on Monday, February 8 at the age of 89, leaving behind a considerable body of work that touched all genres, all formats and all disciplines of art: cinema, theater (Peter Brook and Le Mahabharata, among others), novel writing, songs, sketches, drawing, etc. Above all, he was a cultured man: a universal and insatiable culture, turned toward sciences and religions, the history of art, culinary tastes, fascinated by life, in France and elsewhere, in India, Iran, and all over the world.
Curious about everything, Jean-Claude Carrière was born in the Hérault, not far fom Montpellier, and was destined for interesting and rewarding encounters. The one with Jacques Tati and Pierre Etaix led him into the world of cinema at the beginning of the 1960s. The one with Luis Buñuel was decisive and legendary, from Diary of a Chambermaid in 1964, to That Obscure Object of Desire in 1977, the Spanish director's last film. There were also those with Milos Forman (from Taking Off to Goya), Louis Malle, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Deray, Volker Schlöndorff, Patrice Chéreau, Andrzej Wajda, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Marco Ferreri, and Michael Haneke, among many others, and the more recent one with Philippe Garrel.
These artistic collaborations, based on the meeting of different realms or imaginary worlds, were incredibly fruitful, for these numerous filmmakers as well as for Carrière. He possessed the art and skill to put himself at the service of auteurs, with intelligence and humility. Throughout his life, he served the arts as few have done, in the name of pleasure and taste, of culture in all its diversity, and of its noblest transmission. He was a magnificent storyteller, a charming and delightful man, cheerful and light-hearted, who loved to share his pleasures without ever overwhelming you with his knowledge and insight. On the contrary, he liked to make you feel as if you were his equal, which was obviously not the case. With him, one felt confident, ready to share delicious moments of great conviviality. And one learned.
Jean-Claude Carrière received an Honorary Academy Award in 2015 in recognition of his incredible cinematographic career.
