Bruno Dumont (; born 14 March 1958) is a French

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, ...

and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

. To date, he has directed ten feature films, all of which border somewhere between realistic drama and the avant-garde. His films have won several awards at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

. Two of Dumont's films have won the Grand Prix award: both ''

L'Humanité ''L'Humanité'' (; ), is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organ of the French Communist Party, and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, ''L'Humanité'' would not exist." History and profile Pre-World Wa ...

'' (1999)(1999) and '' Flandres'' (2006). Dumont's ''

Hadewijch Hadewijch, sometimes referred to as Hadewych or Hadewig (of Brabant or of Antwerp) was a 13th-century poet and mystic, probably living in the Duchy of Brabant. Most of her extant writings are in a Brabantian form of Middle Dutch. Her writings inc ...

'' won the 2009 Prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI Prize) for Special Presentation at the Toronto Film Festival.

Life and career

Dumont has a background of Greek and German (Western) philosophy, and of corporate video. His early films show the ugliness of extreme

violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened o ...

and provocative

sexual behavior Human sexual activity, human sexual practice or human sexual behaviour is the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts, ranging from activities done alone (e.g., masturbation) ...

, and are usually classified as

art film An art film (or arthouse film) is typically an independent film, aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made primarily ...

s. Later films bring novel twists to other movie genres like comedy or musicals. Dumont has himself likened his films to

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts a ...

, and he typically uses long takes, close-ups of people's bodies, and story lines involving extreme emotions. Dumont does not write traditional scripts for his films. Instead, he writes complete novels which are then the basis for his filmmaking. He says that some of his favorite filmmakers are

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...

Ingmar Bergman Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film director, screenwriter, producer and playwright. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time, his films are known as "profoundly ...

Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual who also distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, translator, playwright, visual artist and actor. He is considered one of ...

Roberto Rossellini Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such ...

, and

Abbas Kiarostami Abbas Kiarostami ( fa, عباس کیارستمی ; 22 June 1940 – 4 July 2016) was an Iranian film director, screenwriter, poet, photographer, and film producer. An active filmmaker from 1970, Kiarostami had been involved in the production of ...

. He is frequently considered an artistic heir to

Robert Bresson Robert Bresson (; 25 September 1901 – 18 December 1999) was a French film director. Known for his ascetic approach, Bresson contributed notably to the art of cinema; his non-professional actors, ellipses, and sparse use of scoring have le ...

. His often polarizing work has been connected to a recent French cinéma du corps/body of cinema, encompassing contemporary films by

Claire Denis Claire Denis (; born 21 April 1946) is a French film director and screenwriter. Her feature film '' Beau Travail'' (1999) has been called one of the greatest films of the 1990s, as well as of all time. Other acclaimed works include '' Trouble E ...

Marina de Van Marina de Van (; born 8 February 1971) is a French film director, screenwriter and actress. Her film, '' Don't Look Back'', was screened out of competition at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Her brother is , he appeared with her in the 1998 fil ...

Gaspar Noé Gaspar Noé (, ; born 27 December 1963) is an Argentine filmmaker based in Paris, France. He is the son of Argentine painter, writer, and intellectual Luis Felipe Noé. In the early 1990s, Noé along with his wife Lucile Hadžihalilović wer ...

Diane Bertrand Diane Bertrand (born 20 November 1951) is a French film director and screenwriter. Her film '' Un samedi sur la terre'' was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. Selected filmography * '' Charcuterie fine: C ...

, and

François Ozon François Ozon (; born 15 November 1967) is a French film director and screenwriter. Ozon is considered one of the most important modern French filmmakers. His films are characterized by aesthetic beauty, sharp satirical humor and a free-wheeli ...

, among others. According to Tim Palmer, this trajectory includes a focus on states of corporeality in and of themselves, independent of narrative exposition or character psychology. In a more pejorative vein, James Quandt has also talked of some of this group of filmmakers, as the so-called New French Extremity.Quandt, James, "Flesh & Blood: Sex and violence in recent French cinema", ''ArtForum'', February 200

Access date: 10 July 2008. His 2011 film '' Hors Satan'' premiered in the

Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, ...

section at the

2011 Cannes Film Festival The 64th Cannes Film Festival was held from 11 to 22 May 2011. American actor Robert De Niro served as the president of the jury for the main competition and French filmmaker Michel Gondry headed the jury for the short film competition. South K ...

. His 2013 film '' Camille Claudel 1915'' premiered in competition at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival. Dumont is an atheist.

Filmography

Feature films

* '' La vie de Jésus / The Life of Jesus'' (1997) * '' Humanité / Humanity'' (1999) * '' Twentynine Palms'' (2003) * '' Flandres / Flanders'' (2006) * ''

'' (2009) * '' Hors Satan'' (2011) * '' Camille Claudel 1915'' (2013) * '' P'tit Quinquin / L'il Quinquin'' (2014) * '' Slack Bay / Ma Loute'' (2016) * '' Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc'' (2017) * '' Coincoin and the Extra-Humans'' / ''Coincoin et les z'inhumains'' (2018) * ''

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the corona ...

'' / ''Jeanne'' (2019) * '' France'' (2021)

Short films

* ''

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

'' (1993) * '' P'tit Quinquin / Li'l Quinquin'' (1993) * '' Marie et Freddy / Marie and Freddy'' (1994)

Interviews and articles

Kinok 14 September 2003

Film de Culte (French)

Cineuropa 23 May 2006

Fluctuat 1 March 2012 (French)

DVDrama 24 September 2006 (French)

Film de Culte September 2006 (French)

Photos of Bruno Dumont from The San Sebastian Film Festival, October 2009

References

External links

Official site
*
Flandres official site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dumont, Bruno 1958 births Living people European Film Awards winners (people) French film directors French atheists