Yves Robert

Biography: life and films

Yves Robert was a French film director, screenwriter, film actor and film producer. He was born in Saumur, on 19 June 1920 and died in France on 10 May 2002. Before he had reached his 20th birthday, Robert settled in Paris to embark on an acting career. Starting out by performing in café-théâtres, he made a considerable impression as a stage actor in the 1940s, appearing in plays by Marcel Aymé, Jean Anouilh and Jean Cocteau. By the late 1950s, he had also become a familiar face in French cinema, well-suited to playing colourful characters with a mischievous or subversive streak. Marcel Carné gave Robert his first substantial role, that of the accordionist, in Juliette ou La clef des songes (1950), and he was soon landing important supporting roles in such films as René Clair's Les Grandes manoeuvres (1955) and Claude Autant-Lara's La Jument verte (1959).

Having directed several stage plays, it was natural that Robert should turn his hand to directing films. One of his first successes as a film director was Ni vu, ni connu (1958), which gave the comic actor Louis de Funès one of his first major screen roles. This was followed by Signé Arsène Lupin (1959), one of the best screen outings for Maurice Leblanc's fictional thief, and La Guerre des boutons (1962), which won the Prix Jean-Vigo and was one of the most successful French films of all time, attracting an audience of 10 million. Robert notched up several other box office hits in the 1970s, with popular comedies such as Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire (1972), starring his protégé Pierre Richard (whose early films he produced), and Un éléphant ça trompe énormément (1976), one of his collaborations with the screenwriter Jean-Loup Dabadie.

Robert continued acting well into his sixties, and in Claude Sautet's Un mauvais fils (1980) he gave what is arguably his best screen performance, playing Patrick Dewaere's father. Towards the end of his career, Robert directed the ambitious diptych La Gloire de mon père / Le Château de ma mère (1990), a lovingly crafted adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's autobiographical novels that found favour with critics and audiences around the world. In 2002 he suffered a fatal brain haemorrhage and is now buried at Montparnasse cemetery. Admired for his humanity and multiple talents, Yves Robert leaves behind an impressive body of work which includes the 24 films he directed, many of which have become much-loved classics of French cinema.

Filmography