Editing Maurice Pialat

{{Short description|French filmmaker}}
{{Redirect|Pialat|the swimmer|Michèle Pialat}}
{{Infobox person
|name= Maurice Pialat
|image= Maurice_Pialat.jpg
|caption=
|birth_date= {{birth date|1925|8|31|df=yes}}
|birth_place= [[Cunlhat]], [[French Third Republic|France]]
|death_date= {{death date and age|2003|1|11|1925|8|31|df=yes}}
|death_place= [[Paris]], France
|occupation= Film director, screenwriter
}}

'''Maurice Pialat''' ({{IPA|fr|pjala|lang}}; 31 August 1925 – 11 January 2003) was a French film director, screenwriter and actor known for the rigorous and unsentimental style of his films. His work is often described as "[[neorealism (art)|realist]]",<ref name="rouge.com.au">[http://www.rouge.com.au/1/pialat.html Maurice Pialat: A Cinema of Surrender] at [[Rouge (film journal)|Rouge]]</ref> though many film critics<ref name="rouge.com.au"/><ref name="Tribute to Maurice Pialat">[http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/03/25/pialat.html Tribute to Maurice Pialat] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204113224/http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/03/25/pialat.html |date=2008-12-04 }} at [[Senses of Cinema]]</ref> acknowledge it does not fit the traditional definition of realism.

Pialat's films are said to have dispensed with mannerisms, and his everyday stories tell the bittersweet nature of the French [[Petite bourgeoisie|petty bourgeoisie]]. This earned him the disregard of some critics, but also enduring popularity, with films characterized by a psychological narrative style, often set outside the metropolises.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/medien/fernsehabend-zu-maurice-pialat-das-schweigen-des-meisters-12307142.html | title=Fernsehabend zu Maurice Pialat: Das Schweigen des Meisters | newspaper=Faz.net | last1=Platthaus | first1=Andreas }}</ref>

==Life and career==
Pialat was born in [[Cunlhat]], Puy-de-Dôme, France. He originally intended to become a painter, but met with little success.<ref name="Lightning in a Bottle">[http://www.filmlinc.com/fcm/5-6-2004/pialatintro.htm Lightning in a Bottle] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724175740/http://www.filmlinc.com/fcm/5-6-2004/pialatintro.htm |date=2008-07-24 }} at ''[[Film Comment]]''</ref> Having acquired a camera at age 16, he tried his hand at [[documentary films]] before making his first notable short, ''[[L'amour existe]]'', in 1960.

Pialat came to filmmaking late. He directed his feature-length debut, 1969's ''[[L'enfance nue]]'' (''The Naked Childhood'') at age 43. The film, which was co-produced by [[French New Wave]] director [[François Truffaut]], won the [[Prix Jean Vigo]].

During his 35-year career, Pialat completed ten major features, many of which—most notably ''[[Loulou (film)|Loulou]]''—have been interpreted as autobiographical.<ref>[https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/deep-focus/maurice-pialat-french-realist-complete-career-retrospective-overview "Maurice Pialat: the man who changed French cinema"], ''[[Sight & Sound]]'', 18 October 2019. Retrieved on 18 October 2019.</ref> He directed [[Gérard Depardieu]] in four films: ''[[Loulou (film)|Loulou]]'', ''[[Police (1985 film)|Police]]'', ''[[Under the Sun of Satan (film)|Sous le soleil de Satan]]'' (''Under the Sun of Satan''), for which Pialat won the [[Palme d'Or]] at the [[1987 Cannes Film Festival]], and ''[[Le Garçu]]'' (1995).

In a posthumous tribute written for the French film magazine ''[[Positif (magazine)|Positif]]'', critic Noël Herpe called Pialat's style "a [[Naturalism (literature)|naturalism]] that was born of [[Formalism (art)|formalism]]".<ref name="Tribute to Maurice Pialat"/> In English-language film criticism, he is often compared to his American contemporary [[John Cassavetes]].<ref name="Lightning in a Bottle"/><ref>[http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/05/35/pialat_and_cassavetes.html Maurice Pialat at John Cassavetes]{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} at [[Senses of Cinema]]</ref>

Summarizing Pialat's stance as a filmmaker in a profile for ''Film Comment'', critic [[Kent Jones (writer)|Kent Jones]] wrote: "To say that Pialat marched to the beat of a different drummer is to put it mildly. In fact, he didn't really march at all. He ambled, and fuck anybody who got it into their head that they'd like to amble along with him. Or behind him. Or ahead of him."<ref name="Lightning in a Bottle"/>

==Style==
Pialat's films are often noted for their loose yet rigorous style and for their elliptical editing and long takes. Describing the unique [[aesthetics]] of Pialat's work, film critic Kent Jones wrote: "More than [[John Cassavetes|Cassavetes]], more than [[Jean Renoir|Renoir]], Pialat wanted every frame of celluloid bearing his name to be marked by the here and the now. [...] He was always willing to bend his narratives around experience. And the frequent ruptures, [[Continuity (fiction)|discontinuities]], perspective shifts, and ellipses in his work are less single-minded than those of Cassavetes, more far-reaching in their implications."<ref name="Lightning in a Bottle"/>

==Filmography==
===Director===
====Feature films====
*''[[L'enfance nue]]'' (1968)
*''[[La maison des bois]]'' (1971, TV mini-series)
*''[[We Won't Grow Old Together]] ([[Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble]])'' (1972)
*''[[The Mouth Agape]] ([[The Mouth Agape|La gueule ouverte]])'' (1974) 
*''[[Graduate First]] ([[Passe ton bac d'abord]])'' (1978)
*''[[Loulou (film)|Loulou]]'' (1980)
*''[[À nos amours]]'' (1983)
*''[[Police (1985 film)|Police]]'' (1985)
*''[[Under the Sun of Satan (film)|Under the Sun of Satan]] ([[Under the Sun of Satan (film)|Sous le soleil de Satan]])'' (1987)
*''[[Van Gogh (1991 film)|Van Gogh]]'' (1991)
*''[[Le Garçu]]'' (1995)

====Short films (selected)====
*''[[Drôles de bobines]]'' (1957)
*''[[L'Ombre familière]]'' (1958)
*''[[L'amour existe]]'' (1960)
*''[[Janine (film)|Janine]]'' (1961)
*''[[Maître Galip]]'' (1962)
*''[[Jardins d'Arabie]]'' (1963)
*''[[Byzance]]'' (1964)
*''[[Pehlivan (1964 film)|Pehlivan]]'' (1964)

===Actor===
*''Le jeu de la nuit'' (1957)
*''[[This Man Must Die]]'' (1969) - Le commissaire de police Constant
*''[[My Little Loves]]'' (1974) - Ami d'Henri
*''Les lolos de Lola'' (1976) - Le vendeur d'outils
*''[[À Nos Amours]]'' (1983) - Le père
*''[[Under the Sun of Satan (film)|Under the Sun of Satan]]'' (1987) - Menou-Segrais (final film role)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb name|0681207}}
* [http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090706012955/http://www.maurice-pialat.net/accueil.htm Maurice Pialat Resource] (in French)
* [http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/person/10040/maurice-pialat Literature on Maurice Pialat]
{{Maurice Pialat}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pialat, Maurice}}
[[Category:1925 births]]
[[Category:2003 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Puy-de-Dôme]]
[[Category:French film directors]]
[[Category:French male film actors]]
[[Category:Deaths from kidney failure in France]]
[[Category:Directors of Palme d'Or winners]]
[[Category:Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery]]
[[Category:French male screenwriters]]
[[Category:20th-century French screenwriters]]
[[Category:20th-century French male actors]]
[[Category:French television directors]]
[[Category:20th-century French male writers]]