Claude Sautet

Biography: life and films

Claude Sautet was a French film director and screenwriter. He was born in Montrouge, France on 23 February 1924 and died in Paris, France on 22 July 2000. Having graduated from the film school IDHEC, Sautet made his feature debut as a director in 1951 with the mainstream comedy Bonjour sourire. Classe tous risques (1960) was his first success, but after a similarly routine thriller, L'Arme à gauche, he began making the kind of films he is now best known for, intimate slice-of-life dramas about friendship, family and love. Les Choses de la vie is the first of Sautet's films to bear his unmistakable auteur imprint and was a notable commercial and critical success. It was the first occasion he worked with the actress Romy Schneider, the star of four of his films. After Max et les ferrailleurs, his final attempt at a policier, Sautet made what many consider to be his masterpiece, César et Rosalie (1972), a modern take on the eternal triangle with Schneider torn between Sami Frey and Yves Montand. Over the following decade, Claude Sautet would come to be regarded as one of France's leading auteur filmmakers, one with substantial box office appeal. Une histoire simple (1978) drew an audience of 2.3 million and garnered Sautet the first of his four César nominations for Best Director - he finally won the award with Un coeur en hiver (1992) and Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud (1995). As well as a director, Sautet was also an accomplished screenwriter, and his writing skills were sought after by many other filmmakers, including Georges Franju (Les Yeux sans visage), Jean-Paul Rappeneau (La Vie de château) and Jacques Deray (Borsalino).

Filmography