Georges Rouquier (23 June 1909 – 19 December 1989) was a French film director, screenwriter and actor. He worked principally on documentary films, and his best-known work is ''Farrebique'' (1947) a lyrical evocation of farming life in
Aveyron
Aveyron (; oc, Avairon; ) is a department in the region of Occitania, Southern France. It was named after the river Aveyron. Its inhabitants are known as ''Aveyronnais'' (masculine) or ''Aveyronnaises'' (feminine) in French. The inhabitan ...
.
Biography
Georges Rouquier was born in
Lunel-Viel
Lunel-Viel (; oc, Lunèl Vièlh, literally: "old Lunel") is a commune in the Hérault department in southern France. Lunel-Viel station has rail connections to Narbonne, Montpellier and Avignon.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Héra ...
,
Hérault
Hérault (; oc, Erau, ) is a department of the region of Occitania, Southern France. Named after the Hérault River, its prefecture is Montpellier. It had a population of 1,175,623 in 2019.Chaplin,
DeMille DeMille or De Mille is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Agnes De Mille, American dance and choreographer
* Beatrice deMille, English-born American playwright and screenwriter
*Cecil B. DeMille, American film director
* Constance ...
, Eisenstein, Dovzhenko, and especially the documentarist Robert Flaherty. He met the documentary film-maker Eugène Deslaw who was impressed by his enthusiasm and agreed to teach him the basic techniques of film. Rouquier bought a second-hand camera and made his first (silent) film, ''Vendanges'' (1929; now lost), about grape-harvesting in his native region. He continued working in the printing business while further familiarising himself with filming methods, including sound, and it was in the 1940s during the German Occupation of France that he got the opportunity to make some short commissioned films. ''Le Tonnelier'' (1942) demonstrated the craftsmanship of a cooper as he makes a barrel, and ''Le Charron'' (1943) examined the work of another traditional artisan, a wheelwright. These and other short films which followed affirmed Rouquier's interest in showing men who expressed themselves in their accumulated traditional skills, drawn from an integrated rural way of life.Vincent Pinel. ''Cinéma français''. Paris: Éditions Cahiers du Cinéma, 2006. pp. 120–123.
In 1944 Rouquier embarked on his first feature-length film, '' Farrebique'', and spent 18 months living with a peasant farming family at Goutrens in Aveyron to document their way of life and their surroundings.Claude Beylie. ''Une histoire du cinéma français''. Paris: Larousse, 2005. p. 503. He declared that he was interested in everything - their habits, customs, and religion, their family relationships, but also the life of insects, plants and the natural world around them. He produced from this a lyrical chronicle of rural life, structured around the four seasons, at a time when the traditional vision of agriculture was about to vanish with the introduction of mechanised production methods. When the film was released in 1947, it made considerable impact (despite some dissenters) and it was seen by 1,200,000 spectators in cinemas around France, as well as receiving the International Critics Prize at the Cannes film festival.''Dictionnaire du cinéma populaire français des origines à nos jours''; d.by Christian-Marc Bosséno & Yannick Dehée. aris Nouveau Monde Éditions, 2004. p. 345.
Rouquier wanted to make a second film which would show the changes brought to the farm by the introduction of electricity and other modernisations, but he was unable to get funding for it. However, 38 years later when he was 74, Rouquier finally had the chance to film his contrasting look at the same location in '' Biquefarre'' (1983), in which he applied the same detailed attention to a transformed way of life.
Rouquier continued to make commissioned short films on a variety of subjects, including portraits of the biologist and chemist Louis Pasteur (1947) and the composer
Arthur Honegger
Arthur Honegger (; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. A member of Les Six, his best known work is probably ''Antigone'', composed between 1924 and 1927 t ...
(1955). He also filmed two fiction dramas, '' Sang et Lumières'' (1954) set in Spain, and '' S.O.S. Noronha'' (1957) which was based on an incident involving a French communications station off the coast of Brazil during an insurrection in 1930. In the 1960s and 1970s he made numerous films for television. He also made occasional appearances in films as an actor, including '' Z'' (1969) for Costa-Gavras and ''L'Amour nu'' (1981) for
Yannick Bellon
Marie-Annick Bellon, usually known as Yannick Bellon, (6 April 1924 – 2 June 2019), was a French film director, editor and screenwriter. Initially known for her documentary work, in 1972 she made her first feature film, ''Quelque part quelqu’u ...
''Feature films''
* 1946: '' Farrebique''
* 1954: '' Sang et Lumières / Sangre y luces''
* 1955: ''Lourdes et ses miracles'' (trilogy of documentaries)
* 1957: '' S.O.S. Noronha''
* 1983: '' Biquefarre''
''Short/Medium length films''
* 1929: ''Vendanges'' (about grape-harversting)
* 1942: ''Le Tonnelier'' (about a cooper)
* 1944: ''Le Charron'' (about a wheelwright)
* 1944: ''La Part de l'enfant''
* 1944: ''L'Économie des métaux'' (on the recovery of used metals)
* 1948: ''L'Œuvre scientifique de Pasteur'' (in collaboration with Jean Painlevé)
* 1949: ''Le Chaudronnier''
* 1951: ''Le Sel de la terre'' (on extracting salt in the Camargue)
* 1952: ''Un jour comme les autres'' (on the prevention of accidents at work)l
* 1952: ''Le Lycée sur la colline''
* 1952: ''Malgovert'' (on the threat of flooding in a small mountain village)
* 1955: ''La Bête noire'' (on hunting a wild boar)
* 1955: ''Arthur Honegger'' (awarded a prize at the
Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...
1957)
* 1958: ''Une Belle Peur''
* 1959: ''Le Notaire de Trois-Pistoles''
* 1960: ''Le Bouclier'' (on health and safety)
* 1965: ''Sire, le Roy n'a plus rien dit'' (on French-Canadian furniture makers in the 17th and 18th centuries)
* 1976: ''Le Maréchal-ferrant'' (on the life of a blacksmith; won César for best documentary short of 1977)
As actor
* 1955: ''Le Sabotier du Val de Loire'' (narrator) directed by Jacques Demy
* 1957: ''Lettre de Sibérie'' (narrator) directed by
Chris Marker
Chris Marker (; 29 July 1921 – 29 July 2012) was a French writer, photographer, documentary film director, multimedia artist and film essayist. His best known films are ''La Jetée'' (1962), '' A Grin Without a Cat'' (1977) and ''Sans Soleil ...
Jean-Paul Le Chanois
Jean-Paul Étienne Dreyfus, better known as Jean-Paul Le Chanois (25 October 1909 – 8 July 1985), was a French film director, screenwriter and actor. His film '' ...Sans laisser d'adresse'' won the Golden Bear (Comedies) award at the 1st ...
* 1969: ''
Jeff
Jeff is a masculine name, often a short form ( hypocorism) of the English given name Jefferson or Jeffrey, which comes from a medieval variant of Geoffrey.
Music
* DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ/turntablist record producer Jeffrey Allen Townes ...
'' (as Jeff) directed by Jean Herman
* 1969: '' Z'' directed by Costa-Gavras
* 1970: ''Nous n'irons plus aux bois'' (as doctor) directed by Georges Dumoulin
* 1971: ''Primer año'' directed by Patricio Guzmán
* 1972: ''
Beau Masque
''Beau Masque'' (Handsome Face) is a Franco-Italian film directed by Bernard Paul and released in 1972.
Synopsis
In a region in the east of France, Pierrette, ( Dominique Labourier), a young mill worker devotes herself totally to her trade union ...
'' (as Vizille) directed by Bernard Paul
* 1981: ''L'Amour nu'' (as Jean Lafaye) directed by
Yannick Bellon
Marie-Annick Bellon, usually known as Yannick Bellon, (6 April 1924 – 2 June 2019), was a French film director, editor and screenwriter. Initially known for her documentary work, in 1972 she made her first feature film, ''Quelque part quelqu’u ...