Pierre Arditi

Biography: life and films

Pierre Arditi is one of France's most prolific and well-regarded actors, best known for his frequent collaborations with the acclaimed cineaste Alain Resnais. Since he made his small screen debut in the late 1960s, he has appeared in around a hundred films for the cinema and about the same number of films and series for television. He has also been impressively active in the theatre, somehow managing to divide his time fairly evenly between his stage and screen work. In addition, he has had a busy career as a voice artist, in which capacity he has dubbed several American films and TV series, including Christopher Reeve in the Superman films.

Pierre Arditi was born in Paris, France on 1st December 1944, the son of the painter Georges Arditi. At first, he had no inclination to become an actor and it was his younger sister Catherine (soon to become a successful actress) who encouraged him to take up the profession. Having completed his military service, the 20-year old Arditi began his acting career in earnest at the Théâtre du Cothurne in Lyon, under the direction of Marcel Maréchal. From the mid-60s to the late seventies, Arditi was busily employed as an actor for stage and television, notably taking the lead role in Roberto Rossellini's Blaise Pascal (1972).

It wasn't until 1979 that Arditi was able to break into cinema when Alain Resnais offered him an important role in Mon oncle d'Amérique (1980). It was the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration which delivered eight remarkable films and concluded in 2012 with Vous n'avez encore rien vu, the director's penultimate film. It was for his multiple portrayals in Resnais's highly praised Smoking / No Smoking (1983) that Arditi was awarded the Best Actor César. Previously, he had received the Best Supporting Actor César for his work on the director's Mélo (1986).

The extraordinary range and versatility that Arditi demonstrated in Smoking / No Smoking is equally borne out by the wide variety of roles he has taken on in a rich assortment of genres that range from comedy to thriller to serious drama. The actor's silky smooth, naturally charming persona has not prevented him from making an impact in some ambiguous and sinister roles, such as the shady government operative in Jean-Pierre Mocky's Agent Trouble (1987), the guilt-ridden romantic lead in Jean-Claude Sussfeld's La Passerelle (1988) and driven Inspecteur Larsan in Bruno Podalydès's Le Mystère de la chambre jaune (2003).

In 1986 Pierre Arditi began a long-term relationship with the actress Évelyne Bouix, whom he married in 2010. Previously, he had had a son, Frédéric, through an earlier relationship with Florence Giorgetti. It was for some of his stage work that Arditi has received the greatest praise. In 1987, he received the Molière award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Bernard Murat's 1986 production of Jean Anouilh's La Répétition ou l'Amour puni at the Théâtre Édouard VII in Paris. Several other stage productions bearing his name have been broadcast on French television, notably Bernard Murat's 2007 production of Sacha Guitry's Faisons un rêve. In 2002, Arditi was awarded the Knight of Legion of Honour. He remains a high profile and busy actor, now familiar to French television audiences as Benjamin Lebel in the series Le Sang de la vigne (2011-15).

Filmography

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