On October 3, local time in France, the well-known filmmaker Michel Blanc died suddenly in Paris due to a medical accident at the age of 72. According to his relatives and friends, he recently went to Saint-Antoine Hospital in the 12th arrondissement of Paris for a routine physical examination. However, he suffered a sudden death from shock due to a severe allergic reaction after injecting a contrast agent.
Michelle Brown
Michelle Brown is a well-known all-rounder in the French film industry: as an actor, he won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1986 for his film "Evening Gown"; and eight years later, he won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival. At the 47th Cannes Film Festival, he won the Best Screenplay Award for "So Tired".
During his fifty-year film career, he has collaborated with Bertrand Brillet, Robert Altman, Roman Polanski, Roberto Benigni, Peter Greenaway and many others. We have collaborated with famous European and American directors. As for the director with whom he collaborates most closely, it is none other than French director Patrice Lecomte.
"Evening Gown" won Michelle Brown the Cannes Best Actor Award.
Michelle Brown was born on April 16, 1952, in a working-class family in Courbevoie, a city in the western suburbs of Paris. Because he was frail and sickly since childhood, he gradually developed a sensitive and delicate personality and had a strong interest in various art forms such as drama and music. While studying at the Lycée Pasteur, he met like-minded people such as Thierry Lermit, Christian Clavière and Gérard Junior. They formed a student theater troupe and created many plays of their own. After accumulating experience, they performed in small theaters in various coffee shops in Paris. In 1974, they officially formed a comedy group called "Brilliant". Michelle Brown, who has gone bald very early, often appears as an anxious and suspicious loser in their comedy works.
In 1978, their troupe's own work "Holiday in the Sun" was put on the screen by Patrice Lecomte, which quickly became popular throughout France. Two sequels were filmed in the future, becoming the collective memory of generations of French audiences. In addition, comedy films such as "The Useless Santa Claus" and "Resistance", which were also adapted from the works of the "Brilliant" theater company and starred by members of the theater group, have also achieved box office success.
After entering the 1980s, Michelle Brown took the lead in leaving the "Brilliant" theater company and began a solo career as an actor and director. In 1984, his first feature film "Marche a l'ombre" (Two Paupers), which he wrote and directed, became the highest-grossing local comedy in France that year, with 6.1 million viewers. Two years later, he won the Cannes Film Festival alongside Bob Hoskins, the leading actor in "Mona Lisa", for his brilliant performance in the black comedy "Evening Gown" directed by Bertrand Brillet. Film Festival Best Actor Award.
And "Mr. Yi", released in 1989, can be said to be the most skillful masterpiece among the nine collaborations between Michelle Brown and Patrice LeConte. Different from his past comedy roles, in this noir film adapted from Georges Simenon's original work, Michelle Brown plays a lonely old tailor who is involved in the whirlpool of life due to voyeurism.
Michelle Brown has collaborated nine times with Patrice LeConte, the director of “Mr.
After entering the 1990s, Michelle Brown gradually stepped out of her native country and was invited to participate in new works by famous directors from other countries many times, including Peter Greenaway's "Prospero's Grimoire", Robert Altman "The Storm", Roberto Bernini's "The Devil", etc., have become more and more familiar to audiences outside France.
Michelle Brown (left) in Greenaway's "Prospero's Grimoire."
In 1994, he wrote, directed and starred in the French comedy "Tired to Death", which was shortlisted for the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival and unexpectedly won the Best Screenplay Award.The competition in the main competition unit that year was extremely fierce. In addition to "Pulp Fiction", "Alive", "In the Heat of the Sun" and "Dear Diary" which won the Palme d'Or, Jury Prize and other awards, films such as "Independence" and "Blue Films that can now be regarded as classics, such as "White and Red Trilogy: Red", "Shadow Tycoon", "Youguo Station" and "Lover Under the Olive Tree", all returned empty-handed. The decision of the jury headed by American director Clint Eastwood to award "Best Screenplay" to "Breathless" caused some criticism at the time. At the French César Awards the following year, "Tired to Death" was also shortlisted for the Best Screenplay Award, but ultimately lost to "Wild Reeds," which seemed to demonstrate the different appreciation orientations of the two judges. Of course, having said that, as an actor and screenwriter, Michelle Brown has won two awards at Cannes. Looking at the entire international film world, this is an achievement that very few filmmakers have ever achieved.
"Tired to Death" is written, directed and starred by Michelle Brown.
Perhaps, because of this, the sudden death of Michelle Brown shocked the entire French film industry. President Macron, new Prime Minister Michel Barnier and Culture Minister Razida Dati all publicly expressed their regrets and praised him as "a monument to French cinema" who "often makes us laugh with tears." , very moved."
In addition, several old members of the "Brilliant" Theater Troupe whose friendship lasted nearly sixty years, ranging from classmates to comrades and colleagues, are extremely saddened by their passing. Among them, actor Gérard Junior, who is familiar to audiences around the world for "Springtime of the Cowherd", has collaborated with Michelle Brown on the screen as many as 14 times, and they have collaborated in more dramas with the troupe. There are countless. After learning about the death of his old friend, he only posted a short message on his personal social media: "Damn, Michelle... what did you do to us..." The pain contained in it was beyond words.
