Barbet Schroeder (born 26 August 1941) is an Iranian-born Swiss film director and producer who started his career in French cinema in the 1960s, working with directors of the French New Wave such as Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer.
Barbet Schroeder | |
|---|---|
 Schroeder at the Cannes Film Festival, 2017 | |
| Born | 26 August 1941 Tehran, Iran |
| Citizenship | Switzerland |
| Occupation(s) | Director, producer |
| Spouse | Bulle Ogier |
Schroeder started his career producing such films as The Bakery Girl of Monceau (1962), Six in Paris (1965), and Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974). He then transitioned into directing films such as More (1969), La Vallée (1972) and Barfly (1987), the last of which was nominated for the Palme d'Or. He also gained recognition for directing the documentary Koko: A Talking Gorilla (1978). He directed what he labeled, "The Trilogy of Evil", which includes the films, General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait (1974), Terror's Advocate (2007) and The Venerable W. (2016).
He directed the drama Reversal of Fortune (1990) and earned a nomination for Academy Award for Best Director. He then directed many big budget Hollywood films, often mixing melodrama with the thriller genre in films like Single White Female (1992), Kiss of Death (1995), Desperate Measures (1998) and Murder by Numbers (2002). He also acted in Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), Mars Attacks! (1996) and The Darjeeling Limited (2007).
Early life and education
editSchroeder was born in Tehran, Iran, the son of Ursula, a German physician, and Jean-William Schroeder, a Swiss geologist.[1][2] From ages 6 to 11, he lived in Colombia where his father worked. Both he and his family then left for France, where he studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.
Career
editSchroeder's production company Les Films du Losange, founded by him at age 23, produced some of the best-known films of the French New Wave. His directorial debut, More (1969), about heroin addiction, became a hit in Europe. Pink Floyd wrote music for this movie and released the album, More. They also wrote the soundtrack for his 1972 film La Vallée, released as the album Obscured by Clouds.
He later went on to direct more mainstream Hollywood fare, such as Barfly (1987) starring Mickey Rourke, Single White Female (1992) and Reversal of Fortune (1990), for which Jeremy Irons as Claus von Bülow received an Academy Award. Despite his many commercially successful films, Schroeder continues to be interested in making smaller films with a more limited audience, such as the adaptation of Colombian writer Fernando Vallejo's controversial novel La virgen de los sicarios (2000) or the documentary General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait (1974), featuring extensive interviews with the Ugandan dictator and Terror's Advocate (2007) about terrorism in the last fifty years, seen through the eyes of a lawyer, Jacques Vergès, and his clients.
Schroeder has also made some appearances as an actor: playing one of the 'ghosts' in Jacques Rivette's Céline et Julie vont en bateau (Céline and Julie Go Boating), a cameo as a Porsche driver in Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), as the President of France in Mars Attacks! (1996), as a hair products salesman in Paris, je t'aime (2006) and as the mechanic in The Darjeeling Limited (2007). Today, he resides in France and is married to actress Bulle Ogier.
In 2009, Schroeder signed a petition in support of film director Roman Polanski, calling for his release after Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in relation to his 1977 charge for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl.[3]
Schroeder directed the 12th episode of the third season of the American dramatic television series Mad Men that first aired on 1 November 2009. The episode was entitled "The Grown Ups", and was notable for its depiction of the events of the Kennedy assassination.
Filmography
editFilm
edit| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 | Nadja in Paris | No | No | Yes | Directed by Eric Rohmer |
| 1969 | More | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 1972 | La Vallée | Yes | Yes | No | |
| 1974 | General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait | Yes | Yes | No | Documentary film |
| 1975 | Maîtresse | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 1978 | Koko: A Talking Gorilla | Yes | Yes | Yes | Documentary film |
| 1984 | Cheaters (Tricheurs) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Un joueur (uncredited) |
| 1985 | The Charles Bukowski Tapes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Documentary film; also editor |
| 1987 | Barfly | Yes | No | Yes | |
| 1990 | Reversal of Fortune | Yes | No | No | |
| 1992 | Single White Female | Yes | No | Yes | |
| 1995 | Kiss of Death | Yes | No | Yes | |
| 1996 | Before and After | Yes | No | Yes | |
| 1998 | Desperate Measures | Yes | No | Yes | |
| 2000 | La virgen de los sicarios | Yes | No | Yes | |
| 2002 | Murder by Numbers | Yes | No | Yes | |
| 2007 | Terror's Advocate | Yes | No | Yes | Documentary film, also narrator |
| 2008 | Inju: The Beast in the Shadow | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2015 | Amnesia | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2017 | The Venerable W. | Yes | No | Yes | |
| 2023 | Ricardo and Painting | Yes | No | Yes |
As an Actor
| Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | The Bakery Girl of Monceau | car salesman | Eric Rohmer | also producer |
| 1965 | Six in Paris | Jean-Pierre | Jean Rouch | Segment: "Gare du Nord" also producer |
| 1971 | Out 1 | Gian-Reto | Jacques Rivette | |
| 1972 | Out 1: Spectre | |||
| 1974 | Celine and Julie Go Boating | Olivier | Also producer | |
| 1979 | Roberta | Vittorio | Pierre Zucca | |
| La Mémoire courte | Un invité au dîner | Eduardo de Gregorio | ||
| 1984 | Love on the Ground | Audience | Jacque Rivette | uncredited |
| 1990 | The Golden Boat | Mean Passer-by | Raúl Ruiz | |
| 1994 | La Reine Margot | an advisor | Patrice Chéreau | |
| Beverly Hills Cop III | Man in Porsche | John Landis | ||
| 1996 | Mars Attacks! | Maurice, the French President | Tim Burton | |
| 2004 | Ne fais pas ça! | Un client du restaurant #1 | Luc Bondy | |
| 2005 | Une aventure | Dr. Idelman | Xavier Giannoli | |
| 2006 | Paris, je t'aime | Monsieur Henny | Christopher Doyle | Segment: "Porte de Choisy" |
| 2007 | The Duchess of Langeais | Duc de Grandlieu | Jacques Rivette | |
| The Darjeeling Limited | The Mechanic | Wes Anderson | ||
| 2011 | L'avocat | Jacques Meco | Cédric Anger | |
| 2012 | Le grand soir | Jacques Meco | Benoît Delépine Gustave Kervern |
|
| 2014 | Portrait of the Artist | Le médecin | Antoine Barraud | final film role |
Television
edit| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Mad Men | Yes | Episode: "The Grown-Ups" |
References
edit- ^ Barbet Schroeder Biography (1941-)
- ^ Barbet Schroeder Biography - Yahoo! Movies Archived 24 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Le cinéma soutient Roman Polanski / Petition for Roman Polanski". Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (in French). 28 September 2009. Archived from the original on 4 June 2012. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
External links
edit
- Les Films du Losange Archived 6 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- Barbet Schroeder at IMDb
- Barbet Schroeder Website
- A day on location with Schroeder's "Barfly" by Roger Ebert, Archived 13 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine
- Barbet Schroeder, ombres et clarté from Jérôme d'Estais, Editions LettMotif, 2017, http://www.edition-lettmotif.com/produit/barbet-schroeder/