Jacques Bral, a return to noir
Bral is a quiet and unprolific filmaker (only four feature films in 30 years) who nevertheless deeply impressed a generation of cinemagoers with his impeccable Exterior Night in 1980. The screening of a restored version of the film will be one of the Festival's highlights.
Born in Tehran in 1948, he left Iran for France when he was 18 , studied architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1966 to 1968 and at the Institut de formation cinématographique film school. He then made several shorts, including Quand tout le monde est parti, Frisou and M-88.
By 1978, he was a scriptwriter, director and producer and set up the Les Films Noirs production company with Jean-Paul Leca and Julien Lévi. He then made Exterior Night (Extérieur, nuit), which won the Perspectives du cinéma français prize at the Cannes Festival and the Bronze Leopard at the Locarno Festival.
Next came Polar, adapted from a police thriller by Jean-Patrick Manchette, starring Jean-François Balmer. In 1989, he produced American director Sam Fuller's Street of No Return. He made Mauvais garçon in 1993 and his most recent film, Un printemps à Paris, featuring Eddy Mitchell, Sagamore Stevenin and Pierre Santini came out in 2006.
See IMDb entry
Director
1973 UNE BALEINE QUI AVAIT MAL AUX DENTS (A Whale That Had a Toothache)
1980 EXTERIEUR, NUIT
1983 POLAR
1993 MAUVAIS GARÇON
2006 UN PRINTEMPS À PARIS
Scriptwriter
1973 UNE BALEINE QUI AVAIT MAL AUX DENTS
1980 EXTERIEUR, NUIT
1983 POLAR
1989 STREET OF NO RETURN
1993 MAUVAIS GARÇON
2006 UN PRINTEMPS À PARIS
Dialogue
1973 UNE BALEINE QUI AVAIT MAL AUX DENTS
1980 EXTERIEUR, NUIT
Editor
1980 EXTERIEUR, NUIT
1983 POLAR
1989 STREET OF NO RETURN
1993 MAUVAIS GARÇON
2006 UN PRINTEMPS À PARIS
Sagamore Stevenin and Pierre Santini in Un printemps à Paris, and Christine Boisson and André Dussolier in Exterior Night
© DR / Coll. Institut Lumière
