Gérard Brach (23 July 1927 – 9 September 2006) was a French
screenwriter
A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...
best known for his collaborations with the film directors
Roman Polanski
Raymond Roman Thierry Polański (; born 18 August 1933) is a Polish and French filmmaker and actor. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Roman Polanski, numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three Britis ...
and
Jean-Jacques Annaud
Jean-Jacques Annaud (; born 1 October 1943) is a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He directed ''Quest for Fire (film), Quest for Fire'' (1981), ''The Name of the Rose (film), The Name of the Rose'' (1986), ''The Bear (1988 film), ...
. He directed two movies: ''La Maison'' and ''
Le Bateau sur l'herbe''.
Biography
Brach was born in
Montrouge
Montrouge () is a Communes of France, commune in the southern Parisian suburbs, located from the centre of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe. After a long period of decline, the population has increased agai ...
, Paris, where he grew up in poverty.
[Lisa Nesselson (22 September 2006)]
"Gerard Brach"
''Variety''. Retrieved 7 December 2023. At the age of 16, he was persuaded by his family to enlist in the
Charlemagne division of the
Waffen-SS
The (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscr ...
, reportedly witnessing action at the
Battle of Königsberg
The Battle of Königsberg, also known as the Königsberg offensive, was one of the last operations of the East Prussian offensive during World War II. In four days of urban warfare, Soviet Union, Soviet forces of the 1st Baltic Front and the 3 ...
towards the end of World War II.
[Ariane Chemin, ''Fleurs et couronnes'' (Paris: Stock, 2009), p. 23. ] After the war, he contracted tuberculosis and ended up spending five years in a sanatorium, undergoing a series of operations that left him with only one lung.
[Laurence B. Chollet (18 December 1994)]
"The Man Who Wouldn’t Go Out: For 20 Years, Gerard Brach Has Occupied a World Scarcely Larger Than His Room--the Prolific Center of a Screenwriter’s Universe"
''Los Angeles Times''. Retrieved 7 December 2023. While a patient at the sanatorium he befriended the
Dadaist
Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...
poet
Benjamin Péret, who introduced him to
André Breton
André Robert Breton (; ; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') ...
, author of the ''
Surrealist Manifesto
The Surrealist Manifesto refers to several publications by Yvan Goll and André Breton, leaders of rival Surrealism, surrealist groups. Goll and Breton both published manifestos in October 1924 titled ''Manifeste du surréalisme''. Breton wrote ...
'' and a major influence on Brach's early work.
[ Ronald Bergan (19 September 2006)]
"Obituary: Gérard Brach"
''The Guardian''. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
By the late 1950s Brach had entered the film industry, undertaking a number of roles – from acting in minor parts on several films to working as a
runner for the producer Pierre Roustang.
The poverty he experienced at this time was such that he often let himself be locked in production offices at night so he could have a place to sleep; to kill his hunger, the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' later reported, he "ate baguettes laced with vinegar".
From 1959 to 1962 he was employed as a publicist for
Twentieth-Century Fox.
In 1959, Brach met Roman Polanski for the first time while working abroad in Poland, and began collaborating with him on a number of different projects.
Both men later moved to London, where they wrote the scripts for
''Repulsion'' and
''Cul-de-Sac'' in short order. Brach remained in Britain for several years before returning to France to helm ''La Maison'' (1970), his first attempt at film direction. A year later he directed ''Le Bateau sur l’herbe'', which starred
Jean-Pierre Cassel
Jean-Pierre Cassel (; born Jean-Pierre Crochon; 27 October 1932 – 19 April 2007) was a French actor and dancer. A popular star of French cinema, he was initially known for his comedy film appearances, though he also proved a gifted dramatic a ...
and was nominated for the Grand Prix and the Prix du Jury at the
1971 Cannes Film Festival. Neither film made much impact at the box office.
He had further success, however, with his screenplays, working alongside directors of international renown such as Jean-Jacques Annaud,
Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni ( ; ; 29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and editor. He is best known for his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents", ''L'Avventura'' (1960), ''La Notte'' (1961), and '' ...
,
Andrei Konchalovsky
Andrei Sergeyevich Konchalovsky (; né Mikhalkov; born 20 August 1937) is a Russian film and theatre director, screenwriter, and producer. His filmmaking career spans over 60 years in Cinema of the Soviet Union, Soviet, Cinema of the United St ...
and
Bertrand Blier.
In later years Brach suffered from intense
agoraphobia
Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by symptoms of anxiety in situations where the person perceives their environment to be unsafe with no way to escape. These situations can include public transit, shopping centers, crowds and q ...
, which prevented him from leaving his Paris apartment. His illness, he claimed in an interview, arrived "like a black cloud out of nowhere in the early 1980s", making him "break out in a cold sweat, shake and freeze in panic" as soon as he stepped outside.
He received treatment for his affliction, but never managed to defeat it completely.
Personal life and death
Brach was married twice. His first wife, with whom he had a son, divorced him in 1955. He met his second wife, Elisabeth, in 1969; they wed in Brach's bedroom eleven years later, as by this time his agoraphobia was too severe for him to marry in public.
He died of
heart failure
Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to Cardiac cycle, fill with and pump blood.
Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF ...
on 9 September 2006 in Paris, aged 79.
Works include
*1965: ''
Repulsion'' (Writer)
*1966: ''
Cul-de-sac
A dead end, also known as a ''cul-de-sac'' (; , ), a no-through road or a no-exit road, is a street with only one combined inlet and outlet.
Dead ends are added to roads in urban planning designs to limit traffic in residential areas. Some d ...
'' (Writer)
*1966: ''
G.G. Passion'' (Writer)
*1967: ''
Le Bal des vampires'' (UK: ''Dance of the Vampires''; US: ''The Fearless Vampire Killers'') (Writer)
*1967: ''
The Two of Us'' (''Le vieil homme et l'enfant'') (Writer)
*1968: ''
Wonderwall'' (Story)
*1969: ''
Secret World'' (Writer)
*1970: ''La Maison'' (Director and writer)
*1971: ''
Le Bateau sur l'herbe'' (''The Boat on the Grass'') (Director and co-writer)
*1972: ''
Quoi ?'' (''What?'') (Writer)
*1976: ''
Le Locataire'' (''The Tenant'') (Writer)
*1978: ''
Rêve de singe'' (''Bye Bye Monkey'') (Writer)
*1979: ''
Tess'' (Writer)
*1979: ''
Seeking Asylum
An asylum seeker is a person who leaves their country of residence, enters another country, and makes in that other country a formal application for the right of asylum according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 14. A pers ...
'' (Writer)
*1981: ''
Quest for Fire'' (Original title: ''La Guerre du feu'') (Writer)
*1982: ''
Identification of a Woman'' (Writer)
*1983: ''
My Best Friend's Girl'' (Writer)
*1984: ''
Maria's Lovers'' (Writer)
*1986: ''
Pirates'' (Writer)
*1986: ''
Jean de Florette'' (Writer)
*1986: ''
The Name of the Rose
''The Name of the Rose'' ( ) is the 1980 debut novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is a historical fiction, historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327, and an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, ...
'' (Writer)
*1986: ''
Manon des Sources'' (US title: ''Manon of the Spring'') (Writer)
*1987: ''
Shy People'' (Writer)
*1988: ''
Frantic'' (Writer)
*1988: ''
L'Ours'' (''The Bear'') (Writer)
*1992: ''
Bitter Moon
''Bitter Moon'' is a 1992 erotic romantic thriller film co-written and directed by Roman Polanski. It stars Peter Coyote, Emmanuelle Seigner, Hugh Grant and Kristin Scott Thomas. The film's French title, ', is a pun on the French phrase "l ...
'' (Writer)
*1992: ''
The Lover'' (Writer)
*2004: ''
Blueberry
Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section ''Cyanococcus'' with the genus ''Vaccinium''. Commercial blueberries—both wild (lowbush) ...
'' (Writer)
*2007: ''
His Majesty Minor'' (Writer)
Actor
*1960: ''
Breathless'' - Photographer (uncredited)
Notes
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brach, Gerard
1927 births
2006 deaths
People from Montrouge
Best Adapted Screenplay BAFTA Award winners
French film directors
20th-century French non-fiction writers
20th-century French male writers
Deaths from cancer in France
Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery
20th-century French screenwriters