Emmanuel Carrère (; born 9 December 1957) is a French author, screenwriter and film director.
Life
Family
Carrère was born into a wealthy family in the
16th arrondissement of Paris
The 16th arrondissement of Paris (; ) is the westernmost of the 20 arrondissements of Paris, the capital city of France. Located on the city's Right Bank, it is adjacent to the 17th and 8th arrondissements to the northeast, as well as to the ...
. His father, Louis Carrère d'Encausse, is a retired insurance executive and his mother, historian
Hélène Carrère d'Encausse
Hélène Carrère d'Encausse (; née Zourabichvili; 6 July 1929 – 5 August 2023) was a French political historian who specialised in Russian history. From 1999 until her death in 2023, she served as the Perpetual Secretary of the Académie Fra ...
(born Hélène Zourabichvili, the daughter of
Georgian émigrés), was a member and perpetual secretary of the
Académie française
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...
and former
member of the European Parliament
A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament.
When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...
.
She was a cousin of
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili
Salomé Nino Zourabichvili (born 18March 1952) is a French-born Georgian politician, former diplomat, and the fifth president of Georgia – the first female to be elected as president in the country's history. As a result of the constitutiona ...
.
Carrère has two sisters: Nathalie, a lawyer, and
Marina
A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : "related to the sea") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats.
A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo ...
, a doctor, TV presenter and novelist. He is the nephew of composer
Nicolas Zourabichvili and cousin of philosopher
François Zourabichvili.
[
]
Studies
Carrère studied at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly
Lycée Janson-de-Sailly is a ''lycée'' located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. The ''lycéens'' of Janson are called ''les jansoniens'' and they usually refer to their high school as Janson, or JdS. It is the biggest academic inst ...
and Sciences Po
Sciences Po () or Sciences Po Paris, also known as the Paris Institute of Political Studies (), is a public research university located in Paris, France, that holds the status of ''grande école'' and the legal status of . The university's unde ...
(the Paris Institute of Political Studies).
Career
As an alternative to military service, Carrère taught French for two years in Surabaya
Surabaya is the capital city of East Java Provinces of Indonesia, province and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern corner of Java island, on the Madura Strai ...
in Indonesia. He then became a film critic for the magazines ''Télérama
''Télérama'' is a weekly French language, French cultural and television magazine published in Paris, France. The name is a contraction of its earlier title: ''Télévision-Radio-Cinéma''. Fabienne Pascaud is currently managing editor. Ludovic ...
'' and '' Positif''.[ In 1982 his first book, a monograph on the film director ]Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog (; né Stipetić; born 5 September 1942) is a German filmmaker, actor, opera director, and author. Regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema, his films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unusu ...
, was published. The following year saw the publication of his first novel ''L'amie du jaguar'', in which he drew on his experiences in Indonesia.[ His second novel, '' Bravoure'', based on the story of ]Mary Shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ( , ; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an History of science fiction# ...
, Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was an English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame durin ...
, Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom. Among his best-kno ...
, John Polidori
John William Polidori (7 September 1795 – 24 August 1821) was a British writer and physician. He is known for his associations with the Romanticism, Romantic movement and credited by some as the creator of the vampire genre of fantasy fiction. ...
and their stay at Lake Geneva
Lake Geneva is a deep lake on the north side of the Alps, shared between Switzerland and France. It is one of the List of largest lakes of Europe, largest lakes in Western Europe and the largest on the course of the Rhône. Sixty percent () ...
in the summer of 1816, was published in 1984. Both Carrère's first and second novels won literary prizes (the 1984 Prix Passion and 1985 Prix littéraire de la Vocation respectively), but it was his third novel, '' The Moustache'', published in 1986, that introduced the author to a wider readership. Carrère later adapted the book for a film, which he also directed and which won the ''Label Europa Cinemas'' prize at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world.
Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
. An essay in which Carrère explores alternative history, ''Le détroit de Behring: introduction à l'uchronie'', was also published in 1986. In 1988 Carrère published ''Hors d'atteinte'', a novel about a woman who leaves her life to chance. His next work, published in 1993, was '' Je suis vivant et vous êtes morts'', a fictionalised biography of the American science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. This was followed by a novel, '' Class Trip'', which won the 1995 Prix Femina
The Prix Femina is a French List of literary awards, literary prize awarded each year by an exclusively female jury. The prize, which was established in 1904, is awarded to French-language works written in prose or Verse (poetry), verse by male ...
and was adapted into a film
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
by Claude Miller
Claude Miller (20 February 1942 – 4 April 2012) was a French film director, producer and screenwriter.
Life and career
Claude Miller was born to a Jewish family. A student at Paris' IDHEC film school from 1962 through 1963, Miller had his f ...
.[
After the publication of ''Class Trip'', Carrère turned his attention to the case of the murderer Jean-Claude Romand. He corresponded with him in jail and attended his trial. '']L'Adversaire
''The Adversary'' () is a 2002 French drama film directed by Nicole Garcia, starring Daniel Auteuil and Géraldine Pailhas.
Plot
The film is based on the 2000 book of the same name by Emmanuel Carrère which is inspired by the real-life story ...
'', published in 2000, became a bestseller in France and was translated into 23 languages. It was adapted into the film of the same name by director Nicole Garcia
Nicole Garcia (born 22 April 1946) is a French actress, film director and screenwriter. Her film '' Charlie Says'' was entered into the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Her film '' Going Away'' was screened in the Special Presentation section at the ...
.[
In 2007 Carrère published '' A Russian Novel'' about a visit to Russia and his Russian roots. In the book he revealed that his maternal grandfather had worked as a translator for the occupying German forces in World War II and had disappeared in 1944, presumably killed by members of the ]French Resistance
The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...
.
Carrère was on holiday in Sri Lanka when the Indian Ocean tsunami struck. He was in his hotel and not in any personal danger but used the experience as the inspiration for his next book, ''D'autres vies que la mienne'', published in 2009.
In 2011 he published '' Limonov'', a biographical novel about the Russian writer and political dissident Eduard Limonov
Eduard Veniaminovich Limonov (né Savenko; , ; 22 February 1943 – 17 March 2020) was a Russians, Russian writer, poet, publicist, political dissident and politician.
He emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1974, but returned to Russia in 1991 ...
.
'' The Kingdom'', a novel about the rise of early Christianity, was published in 2014. The book provoked a scandal at the Franciscan University of Steubenville and the head of the English Department, who had included the book in the syllabus for an advanced seminar, was removed from his post.
In 2016 Carrère published a collection of his journalism, '. An edition published in English in 2019 with the title ''97,196 Words: Essays'' includes an article on Emmanuel Macron
Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra since 2017. He was Ministry of Economy and Finance (France), Minister of Economics, Industr ...
written in 2017 for ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
''.
In his 2020 book ''Yoga
Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...
'', Carrère writes about his experience of depression and four months spent in the Sainte-Anne Hospital in Paris, where he was diagnosed as bipolar and treated with ketamine
Ketamine is a cyclohexanone-derived general anesthetic and NMDA receptor antagonist with analgesic and hallucinogenic properties, used medically for anesthesia, depression, and pain management. Ketamine exists as its S- (esketamine) a ...
, electroconvulsive therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatry, psychiatric treatment that causes a generalized seizure by passing electrical current through the brain. ECT is often used as an intervention for mental disorders when other treatments are inadequ ...
and lithium
Lithium (from , , ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard temperature and pressure, standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the ...
.
From September 2021 to June 2022 Carrère followed the trial of the November 2015 Paris attacks. His weekly articles were published in ''L'Obs
(), previously known as (2014–2024), (1964–2014), (1954–1964), (1953–1954), and (1950–1953), is a weekly French news magazine. Based in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, ' is one of the three most prominent French news magazines a ...
'' in France, ''El País
(; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA.
It is the second-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . is the most read newspaper in ...
'' in Spain, ''la Repubblica
(; English: "the Republic") is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper with an average circulation of 151,309 copies in May 2023. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and l ...
'' in Italy and ''Le Temps
' (, ) is a Swiss French-language daily newspaper published in Berliner format in Geneva by Le Temps SA. The paper was launched in 1998, formed out of the merger of two other newspapers, and (the former being a merger of two other papers), ...
'' in Switzerland. In September 2022 his articles, with additional material, were published in the form of a book with the title '' V13''. (In France the trial is known as V13 as the attacks took place on Friday () the 13th.) He was awarded the 2022 for the book.
Carrère was a member of the International jury at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival
The 63rd Cannes Film Festival took place from 12 to 23 May 2010. American filmmaker Tim Burton served as jury president for the main competition. Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul won the Palme d'Or, the festival's top prize, for the dram ...
and was a member of the jury for the Cinéfoundation and Short Films sections of the 2012 Cannes Film Festival
The 65th Cannes Film Festival took place from 16 to 27 May 2012. Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti was the president of the jury for the main competition. French actress Bérénice Bejo hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. Austrian filmma ...
. In 2015, he served on the Jury for the Main Competition at the 2015 Venice Film Festival, chaired by Alfonso Cuarón
Alfonso Cuarón Orozco ( ; ; born 28 November 1961) is a Mexican filmmaker. List of awards and nominations received by Alfonso Cuarón, His accolades include four Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and seven BAFTA Awards.
Cuarón made h ...
.
Personal life
Carrère has been married twice and has a daughter and two sons.[
]
Style
Carrère's work ranges freely between genres and is concerned with the themes of identity, illusion and reality. His prose has been described as "spare and supple".
Awards
*1984: Prix Passion
*1985: Prix littéraire de la vocation
Prix was an American power pop band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1975 by Tommy Hoehn and Jon Tiven. The group ended up primarily as a studio project. Its recordings were produced by Tiven along with former Big Star member Chris Bell, who ...
*1987: Grand Prix de l'imaginaire – Prix spécial
*1988: Prix Charles-Oulmont
*1988: Prix Kléber-Haedens
*1995: Prix Femina
The Prix Femina is a French List of literary awards, literary prize awarded each year by an exclusively female jury. The prize, which was established in 1904, is awarded to French-language works written in prose or Verse (poetry), verse by male ...
*2007:
*2009: Prix Marie-Claire; prix Crésus
*2010: from the Académie française
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...
*2011: Prix Renaudot
The Prix Théophraste-Renaudot or () is a French literary award.
History
The prize was created in 1926 by ten art critics awaiting the results of deliberation of the jury of the Prix Goncourt. While not officially related to the Prix Goncour ...
; Prix de la langue française
*2012: Premio Malaparte
*2014: ; "Meilleur livre de l'année", awarded by Lire
*2015: Mondello Prize
*2016: Tomasi di Lampedusa Literary Prize
*2017: Prix FIL de littérature en langues romanes.
*2018: Prix de la Bibliothèque nationale de France
The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...
(BnF)
*2019: Premio Hemingway
*2021: Princess of Asturias Award for Literature; Visions du Réel Honorary Award; Taobuk Award for Literary Excellence; Premio Napoli
*2022:
Bibliography
* ''Werner Herzog'' (1982)
* ''L'Amie du jaguar'' (''The Jaguar's Friend'') (1983)
* '' Bravoure'' (1984) (translated as ''Gothic Romance'', 1990)
* ''Le Détroit de Behring'' (''The Behring Strait'') (1984) (German: '' Kleopatras Nase. Kleine Geschichte der Uchronie.'' Gatza, Berlin 1993.)
* '' La Moustache'' (1986) (translated as ''The Moustache'', 1988)
* ''Hors d'atteinte'' (''Out of Reach'') (1988)
* '' Je suis vivant et vous êtes morts'' (1993) (''I Am Alive and You Are Dead: A Journey into the Mind of Philip K. Dick'', translated by Timothy Bent, 2005).
* '' La Classe de neige'' (1995) (''Class Trip: A Novel'', translated by Linda Coverdale, 1997). Winner of the Prix Fémina Adapted in 1998 as the film of the same name directed by Claude Miller
Claude Miller (20 February 1942 – 4 April 2012) was a French film director, producer and screenwriter.
Life and career
Claude Miller was born to a Jewish family. A student at Paris' IDHEC film school from 1962 through 1963, Miller had his f ...
.
* ''L'Adversaire
''The Adversary'' () is a 2002 French drama film directed by Nicole Garcia, starring Daniel Auteuil and Géraldine Pailhas.
Plot
The film is based on the 2000 book of the same name by Emmanuel Carrère which is inspired by the real-life story ...
'' (2000) (''The Adversary: A True Story of Monstrous Deception'', translated by Linda Coverdale, 2002).
* '' Un roman russe'' (2007) (''A Russian Novel'' (UK)/''My Life as a Russian Novel'' (US), translated by Linda Coverdale, 2010)
*'' D'autres vies que la mienne'' (2009) (''Other Lives But Mine'' (UK) and ''Lives Other Than My Own'' (US), translated by Linda Coverdale, 2012)
* '' Limonov'' (2011), a biography of Eduard Limonov
Eduard Veniaminovich Limonov (né Savenko; , ; 22 February 1943 – 17 March 2020) was a Russians, Russian writer, poet, publicist, political dissident and politician.
He emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1974, but returned to Russia in 1991 ...
(''Limonov: The Outrageous Adventures'', translated by John Lambert, 2015)
* '' Le Royaume'' (2014) (''The Kingdom: A Novel'', translated by John Lambert, 2017)
*' (2016) (''97,196 Words: Essays'', partial translation into English by John Lambert, 2019)
*''Yoga
Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...
'' (2020), (translated by John Lambert, 2022)
*'' V13'' (2022)
Selected filmography
* 1996: '' la Classe de Neige'' by Claude Miller
Claude Miller (20 February 1942 – 4 April 2012) was a French film director, producer and screenwriter.
Life and career
Claude Miller was born to a Jewish family. A student at Paris' IDHEC film school from 1962 through 1963, Miller had his f ...
, adapted from Carrère's book of the same name.
* 2002: ''L'Adversaire
''The Adversary'' () is a 2002 French drama film directed by Nicole Garcia, starring Daniel Auteuil and Géraldine Pailhas.
Plot
The film is based on the 2000 book of the same name by Emmanuel Carrère which is inspired by the real-life story ...
'' by Nicole Garcia
Nicole Garcia (born 22 April 1946) is a French actress, film director and screenwriter. Her film '' Charlie Says'' was entered into the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Her film '' Going Away'' was screened in the Special Presentation section at the ...
and Daniel Auteuil
Daniel Auteuil (; born 24 January 1950) is a French actor and director who has appeared in a wide range of film genres, including period dramas, romantic comedies, and crime thrillers. In 1996 he won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Fest ...
, screenwriter.
* 2003: ', director.
* 2005: '' The Moustache'', director and screenwriter, along with Emmanuelle Devos
Emmanuelle Devos (born 10 May 1964) is a French actress. She is the daughter of actress Marie Henriau. She won the César Award for Best Actress in 2002 for her performance in ''Sur mes lèvres'', directed by Jacques Audiard. She has also been ...
and Vincent Lindon.
* 2009: '' I'm Glad My Mother Is Alive'', based on an article by Carrère.
* 2011: '' All Our Desires'', adapted from his book '' Other Lives But Mine''.
* 2021: '' Between Two Worlds'', loosely adapted from Florence Aubenas's book ''The Cleaning Lady''.
Notes
References
External links
Emmanuel Carrère: the most important French writer you've never heard of
Robert McCrum, ''The Guardian'', 21 September 2014
* – Photos by Mathieu Bourgois.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carrere, Emmanuel
1957 births
Living people
Writers from Paris
French male screenwriters
French screenwriters
20th-century French novelists
20th-century French male writers
21st-century French novelists
French people of Georgian descent
French people of Russian descent
Prix Femina winners
Prix Renaudot winners
French film directors
Sciences Po alumni
French male novelists
20th-century French biographers
21st-century French male writers
French male biographers
Zourabichvili family