Serrault, Michel

(1928- )

   Actor. Michel Serrault was born in Brunoy. He performed in music halls with his colleague Jean Poiret in Robert Dhéry's theater troupe before acting beside Dhéry in director Jean Loubignac's Ah! Les belles bacchantes (1954). Shortly after, he played in Henri-Georges Clouzot's classic, Les Diaboliques (1955). Serrault acted alongside Poiret in several films early in his career, such as Michel Boisrond's Cette sacrée gamine (1956), Roger Pierre and Jean-Marc Thibault's La Vie est belle (1956), Jean Boyer's La Terreur des dames (1956), Maurice Cloche's Adorables démons (1957), Philippe Agostini's Le Naïfaux quarante enfants (1958), Raoul André's Clara et les méchants (1958), Boyer's Nina (1959), Jean Berry's Oh! Qué mambo (1959), Henri Diamant-Berger's Messieurs les ronds de cuir (1959), and Clément Duhour's Vous n'avez rien à déclarer? (1959). Serrault and Poiret costarred in Maurice Cloche's short film, Ça aussi c'est Paris (1957) and in Sacha Guitry's Assassins et voleurs (1957). In 1958, Serrault acted in Jacques Demy's short, Musée Grévin.

   In the 1960s, Serrault appeared both onstage and in the cinema, especially in the genre of comedy. He acted in films such as Dhéry's La Belle Américaine (1961), Marcel Bluwal's Carambolages (1962), René Clair and Alessandro Blasetti's Les quatre verités (1962), Francis Rigaud's Nous irons à Deauville (1962), Boisrond's Comment trouvez-vous ma soeur? (1963), Michel Drach's La Belle occase (1964), Georges Lautner's Des pissenlits par la racine (1964), Edouard Molinaro's Quand passent les faisans (1965), Roland Quignon's Bon Weekend(1965), and Jean-Pierre Mocky's Les Compagnons de la Marguerite (1966). He paired again with Poiret in several films, among them Raymond Bailly's Ma femme est une panthère (1960), Jacques Poitrenaud's La Tête du client (1965), Rigaud's Les Baratineurs (1965), and André's Le Grande bidule (1967), Ces messieurs de la famille (1967), and Ces messieurs de la gâchette (1969).

   In the 1970s, Serrault would have more opportunities to demonstrate his versatility and talent. He played the principal role in Pierre Tchernia's Le Viager (1972), a leading role in Mocky's L'Ibis rouge (1975), and a supporting role in Bertrand Blier's Oscar-winning Préparez vos mouchoirs (1978). He reached international stardom with his lead role, alongside Ugo Tognazzi, in Edouard Molinaro's hugely successful film La cage aux folles (1978), based on the play by Poiret. Serrault won a César for Best Actor for his performance in 1979. That same year, he received a César nomination for Best Supporting Actor in Christian de Chalonge's L'Argent des autres. He would later receive two more Césars for Best Actor in Claude Miller's Garde à vue in 1982 and Claude Sautet's Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud in 1996. He also received four additional César nominations for Best Actor. In 1997, he received the Lumière Award for Best Actor in Claude Chabrol's Rien ne va plus.

   Serrault has been hailed as one of France's finest actors. He is admired for his intelligence, versatility, and intimate character studies (for example, in his title role for de Chalonge's Doctor Pietot in 1990). In addition to starring in the two sequels to La cage aux folles, Serrault has played several significant parts in French comedies, thrillers, and dramas. He played leading roles in Miller's Mortelle randonée (1983), Jacques Deray's On ne meurt que deux fois (1985), Alain Jessua's En toute innocence (1988), Tchernia's Bonjour l'angoisse (1988), Italian director Luigi Comencini's Buon Natale . . . Buon anno (1989), Mocky's Ville à vendre (1992), Bonsoir (1994), Le Furet (2003), and Grabuge! (2005), Etienne Chatiliez's Le Bonheur est dans le pré (1995), Mathieu Kassovitz's Assassin(s) (1997), de Chalonge's Le Comédien (1997), Christian Carion's Une hirondelle a fait le printemps (2001), Laurent Bouhnik's 24 heures de la vie d'une femme (2002), and Philippe Muhl's Le Papillon (2002). Most recently he starred in Pierre Javaux's Les Enfants du pays (2006) and Mocky's Le Bénévole (2006).

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