Garrel, Philippe

(1948- )

   Director and screenwriter. Philippe Garrel was born in Paris, the son of stage and television actor Maurice Garrel, who would later appear in his son's films. Garrel directed his first film, the short Les Enfants désaccordés (1964), at the age of sixteen. He released a second short, Droit de visite, in 1965. His first feature-length film was the 1967 Marie pour mémoire. Also in the 1960s, he directed Anémone (1968), a made-for-television film that was subsequently released in theaters. Then-emerging actress Anémone apparently derived her stage name from this film. Garrel's next film was Le lit de la vièrge (1969).

   In the 1970s, several of Garrel's films centered on his relationship with the Velvet Underground singer Nico. She costarred with Garrel in La cicatrice interieure (1972) and collaborated with him on the dialogue. She also contributed to the soundtrack. She also appears in Garrel's Athanor (1972), Les Hautes solitudes (1974), Un ange passe (1975), Berceau de cristal (1976), Voyage au jardin des morts (1975), and Le Bleu des origines (1979).

   In addition to writing and directing autobiographical pieces, Garrel created portraits of Jean Seberg, Nico, and actress Tina Aumont in his biopic Les Hautes solitudes (1974). The film focuses especially on Seberg, the costar of Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless. Garrel would later employ another Nouvelle Vague or New Wave star, this time a favorite of François Truffaut's, as Jean-Pierre Léaud appeared in his Naissance de l'amour (1993). Maurice Garrel also became one of his son's preferred actors, appearing in films such as Le Coeur fantôme (1996).

   Garrel received a number of prizes in the 1980s, though his fans argue that he is still highly underappreciated. In 1982, Garrel won the Prix Jean-Vigo for L 'Enfant secret (1982). In 1984, he won the Perspectives du Cinéma Award at Cannes for Liberté, la nuit (1983), a film about revolutionaries in the Algerian War starring his father and actress Emmanuel Riva. Also in the 1980s, Garrel directed Elle a passé tant d'heures sous les sunlights (1985) and Les Baisers de secours (1989), in which he appears with Anémone and his wife, Brigitte Sy. Les Baisers de secours marks his first collaboration on a feature film with writer Marc Cholodenko, who would script later films.

   In the 1990s and beyond, Garrel received several awards at the Venice Film Festival. He won the Silver Lion for J'entends plus la guitarre (1991), in part a tribute to Nico, who died in 1988. The film is also a moving contemplation of drug addition and the disillusionment following May 1968. His Le Vent de la nuit (1999), with Catherine Deneuve, was nominated for a Golden Lion. In 2001, he won the Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique (FIPRESCI) Prize for Sauvage innocence. In 2005, he won the Silver Lion a second time for Les Amants réguliers (2005).

   Described as a poet-filmmaker, Garrel has developed a relatively small but dedicated following of cinéphiles, intellectuals, and fellow directors. Garrel was not a contemporary of New Wave directors, nor is he viewed as a New Wave director. However, he has incorporated ideals of New Wave filmmaking into his work, including the focus on the autobiographical and the experimental, and the conception of cinema as an art with its own unique aesthetics.

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