Biography: life and films
Alain Corneau was born on 7th August 1943 in Meung-sur-Loire, Loiret. From an early age, he had a passion for music, particularly jazz, which he picked up from American GIs stationed in his hometown after the Liberation. Whilst training to be a musician, he discovered an even greater passion: cinema. Having graduated from IDHEC (L'Institut des Hautes Études, France's main film school), he began his career, aged 27, as an assistant director to Costa-Gravras on L'Aveu (1970). He then worked as an assistant to some other notable filmmakers, including Marcel Camus, José Giovanni and Nadine Trintignant.
In 1973, Corneau made his directing debut with France, société anonyme, an unusual futuristic thriller about drug liberalisation. Although a fascinating work, it did not perform well at the box office. Corneau's next film, Police Python 357 (1976), was to prove an enormous success and established him in his career. This film was inspired by Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry character, with Yves Montand giving a superb performance as the maverick tough cop. Montand would appear in Corneau's two subsequent thrillers: La Menace (1977) and Le Choix des armes (1981). It was during this fruitful period that Corneau made what is now considered one of his best films, Série noire, a skilful parody of film noir which featured a memorable performance from Patrick Dewaere.
In the 1980s, Corneau moved away from thrillers and tackled a wider range of subjects, beginning with Fort Saganne (1984), an epic love story that was made on a colossal budget. This was followed by Nocturne indien (1989), a personal reflection on Indian society, and Tous les matins du monde (1992) a sombre account of the life of the composer Marin Marais which starred Gérard Depardieu and his son Guillaume in the same role. This latter film was to be Corneau's biggest critical success. It won him seven Césars including the Best Film and Best Director awards.
After the autobiographical Le Nouveau monde (1995), a moving portrait of adolescence, Corneau returned to the policier genre with Le Cousin (1998), a film in which he took the risk of casting two comic actors (Alain Chabat and Patrick Timsit) in straight dramatic roles. His next film, Prince du Pacifique (2000), was a critical and commercial disaster and is best forgotten. Subsequently, Corneau turned his back on blockbusters and made some more low-key films: Stupeur et tremblements (2003), an inspired clash of cultures comedy, and Les Mots bleus (2005), a contemplative drama about the problem of communication.
After this brief period of calm came the lavish remake of a Jean-Pierre Melville classic policier, Le Deuxième souffle (2007), which offered a star-studded cast headed by Daniel Auteuil. Corneau's career concluded with Crime d'amour (2009), a slick thriller revolving around office politics which starred Ludivine Sagnier and Kristin Scott Thomas. Just over a week after the French release of this last film, Alain Corneau died in Paris from lung cancer, during the night of the 29th-30th August, aged 67. The fact that his name is well-known not only in France but also around the world is testimony to his rare talent for making quality films with widespread appeal.
© James Travers 2010
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Filmography
Click here to view complete list of films...French cinema during the Nazi Occupation
The very best of the French New Wave
The very best of French film comedy
