Daniel Auteuil

Biography: life and films

For the past four decades Daniel Auteuil has been one of the leading lights of French cinema, an actor who is renowned both in his native France and internationally for his committed performances in an astonishing variety of films. Few French film actors of his generation have enjoyed the popularity and acclaim that came his way from the 1980s onwards, and this he owes to a rare talent for performance that spans the entire histrionic range, from serious intimate drama to outlandish farce. To date, he has been nominated for thirteen Césars in the category of Best Actor, winning this coveted accolade twice. He has also pursued a successful career in the theatre and has found some acclaim as a film director.

The son of two professional opera singers, Daniel Auteuil seems to have been destined for a career on the stage. Born in Algiers in 1950, he was raised in his parents' hometown of Avignon. It was here that he made his stage debut at the age of 16, in a production of an Anton Chekhov play A Marriage Proposal, performed by André Benedetto's theatre company. He failed to win a place at France's most prestigious drama school, the Paris Conservatoire, but he took drama lesson as the Cours Florent and was soon treading the boards in earnest.

Georges Wilson gave him his first break at the age of 20, offering him a small part in his stage play Early Morning. This was followed by a two-year stint in the popular musical Godspell, which equipped him for the life of a professional stage actor. Auteuil's theatrical career progressed in leaps and bounds, and recognition of his talents came in 1979 when he received the Gérard Philipe Prize for his performance in Coup de chapeau alongside François Périer.

The actor's first brush with cinema was in 1973, playing a minor role in Jacques Doillon's anarchic comedy L'An 01 (1973). The following year, he had his television debut in the TV series Les Fargeot, which led to him be cast in a leading role in the televised crime serial Rendez-vous en noir in 1977. In between, he cropped up in a small film role in Gérard Pirès's 1975 thriller L'Agression. The American director Bob Swaim gave him his first significant big screen role in his low-key crime drama La Nuit de Saint-Germain-des-Prés (1977).

It wasn't until the early 1980s when, in his early thirties, Daniel Auteuil had his big break, demonstrating a natural aptitude for comedy in Claude Zidi's hit school-based comedy Les Sous-doués (1980). Attracting an audience of just under four million, this film made Auteuil an overnight star and his appearance in a slew of similar mainstream comedies - Pour 100 briques, t'as plus rien (1982), Que les gros salaires lèvent le doigt (1982), P'tit Con (1983) - made him a favourite with the French cinema-going public.

Then, in the mid-1980s, came the role that was to totally change Auteuil's screen persona and the course of his career - that of the deformed rustic Ugolin in Claude Berri's phenomenally successful diptych Jean de Florette / Manon des sources (1986). The actor's sympathetic portrayal of a cunning rural misfit earned him worldwide acclaim, a BAFTA and his first Best Actor César. After demonstrating his worth as a serious dramatic actor, he quickly became one of the most sought after performers of his generation. Over the next two decades, Daniel Auteuil was among the most prominent faces of French cinema, equally at home in mainstream comedy and the most serious of dramas.

Many important auteur filmmakers of the 1980s and '90s made good use of Auteuil's talents, notably Michel Deville (Le Paltoquet), Coline Serreau (Romuald et Juliette), Claude Sautet (Un coeur en hiver), Christian Vincent (La Séparation) and André Téchiné (Ma saison préférée, Les Voleurs). The actor's arresting charisma made him an obvious casting choice for prominent roles in lavish period dramas, including Francis Girod's Lacenaire (1990), Patrice Chéreau's La Reine Margot (1993), Philippe de Broca's Le Bossu (1997) and Benoît Jacquot's Sade (2000).

Auteuil's remarkably well-judged performance in Jaco Van Dormael's idiosyncratic buddy movie Le Huitième jour won him the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1996 (which he shared with his co-star Pascal Duquenne). He then garnered his second Best Actor César for his role in Patrice Leconte's La Fille sur le pont. Auteuil retained his high profile throughout the first decade of the new millennium, pleasing audiences and critics alike with his full-on dramatic and comedic performances in a wide variety of films that included challenging auteur pieces and populist mainstream offerings.

In this decade, Auteuil's penchant for complex character portrayals was exploited to the full by several serious filmmakers, notably Nicole Garcia (L'Adversaire), Olivier Marchal (36 quai des Orfèvres, MR 73), Michael Haneke (Caché) and Zabou Breitman (Je l'aimais). In parallel, the actor continued showing his flair for comedy in mainstream hits such as Francis Veber's Le Placard (2002) and Pierre Salvadori's Après vous (2003), although he also ended up headlining a number of outright turkeys, including Isabelle Mergault's comedy misfire Donnant donnnat (2010).

Auteuil's admirers had to wait until the 2010s, when he had entered his seventh decade, before he first turned his hand to film directing with La Fille du puisatier (2011), an assured remake of a Marcel Pagnol classic. The success of this film led him to attempt a remake of Pagnol's famous Marseille Trilogy, although so far only the first two instalments of this - Marius and Fanny - have seen the light of day. Five years would elapse before Auteuil directed his next feature, Amoureux de ma femme (2018).

Although his box office appeal had waned somewhat since his glory years of the 1990s, Daniel Auteil continued to be busy both on stage and screen throughout the 2010s. Comedy did him few favours - Olivier Baroux's Entre amis (2015) and Richard Berry's Nos femmes (2015) were both critical and commercial failures - but he continued to land serious parts that were worthy of his talents.

No longer la grande vedette, but un grand acteur of considerable stature, Auteuil impressed audiences and critics with his sober portrayals in such films as Jacques Maillot's La Mer à boire (2012), Philippe Claudel's Avant l'hiver (2013), Vincent Garenq's Au nom de ma fille (2016), David Charhon's Les Naufragés (2016) and Yvan Attal's Le Brio (2017). Despite the occasional dive into execrable mediocrity, such as the risible Qui m'aime me suive (2019), Daniel Auteuil remains an exemplary and dedicated performer who still commands considerable respect throughout the world - an actor of rare charm and versatility that we just can't helping admiring.

Filmography

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