Audiard, Michel

(1920-1985)

   Director and screenwriter. Michel Audiard was one of France's most popular and prolific crafters of film dialogue. He began his film career in the late 1940s, writing screenplays. His first major work as screenwriter was for André Hunébelle's Mission à Tangier (1949). He won the César, with Claude Miller and Jean Herman, for the screenplay of Miller's Garde à vue in 1982. The screenplay was later used in American director Stephen Hopkins's Under Suspicion (2000). He was also nominated for César awards for best film script for Georges Lautner's Mort d'un pourri in 1978 and Jacques Deray's On ne meurt que deux fois in 1986. He worked frequently for Lautner, and wrote several dialogues acted by Jean Gabin, Lino Ventura, and Jean-Paul Belmondo. He directed Faut pas prendre les enfants du bon Dieu pour des canards sauvages (1968), Une veuve en or (1969), Elle bois pas, elle fume pas, elle drague pas, mais . . . elle cause! (1970), Le cri du cormoran le soir au-dessus des jonques (1971), Le drapeau noir flotte sur la marmite (1971), Elle cause plus . . . elle flingue! (1972), Comment réussir quand on est con et pleurnichard (1974), and Bon baisers, à lundi (1974). His son is director Jacques Audiard.

   Historical Dictionary of French Cinema by Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins