Nicolas Philibert

French director, born in Nancy in 1951.

A philosophy graduate, Nicolas Philibert took his first steps in the cinema as an assistant to René Allio. In 1978, he co-directed his first feature film with Gérard Mordillat, His Master’s Voice, which analyses the words of a dozen big bosses of large French companies. From 1985 to 1987 he made films about the mountains and adventure sports for television, then he began directing feature-length documentaries for public release: Louvre City, Land of the Deaf, Animals and More Animals, Every Little Thing…. In To Be and to Have (2001), he follows day-to-day life in a one-room school in a little village in Auvergne. Winner of the Louis Delluc Prize, Best Editing at the César Awards, the film was met with enormous success in France and abroad. Nénette (2010) and La Maison de la radio (2013) were both selected for the Berlinale.
La Voix de son maître (1978) - Trilogy for one man (Trilogie pour un homme seul,1987) - La Ville Louvre (1990) - In the Land of the Deaf (Le Pays des sourds, 1992) - Animals and More Animals (Un animal, des animaux, 1996) - Every Little Thing (La Moindre des choses, 1997) - Qui sait ? (1999) - To Be and to Have (Être et avoir, 2002) - The Invisible (L’Invisible, 2002) - Back to Normandy (Retour en Normandie, 2007) - Nénette (2010) - La Maison de la radio (2013) - De chaque instant (2018) - On the Adamant (2023) - Averroès et Rosa Park (2024) - La Machine à écrire et autres sources de tracas (2024)

Their list of films

Bonus exclusive content

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Nicolas Philibert
about Hospital
of Frederick Wiseman
Through the hospital, the film depicts the violence of New York City. One gets attached to patients and their despair as well as to the dedicated staff.
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Nicolas Philibert
about Die Erschiessung des Landesverräters Ernsts
of Richard Dindo
I wanted to pay tribute to this too little known director whose work I love and admire. He is a filmmaker of memory.
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Nicolas Philibert
about The Bill Douglas Trilogy : My Childhood
of Bill Douglas
I have not forgotten the ghostly and coal-like black-and-white, the fixed camera shots, the bare interiors that tell of coldness and solitude.
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Nicolas Philibert
about The Bill Douglas Trilogy : My Way Home
of Bill Douglas
Je n'ai pas oublié le noir et blanc fantômatique et charbonneux, les cadres fixes, les intérieurs dépouillés qui racontent le froid et la solitude.
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Nicolas Philibert
about The Bill Douglas Trilogy : My Ain Folk
of Bill Douglas
Je n'ai pas oublié le noir et blanc fantômatique et charbonneux, les cadres fixes, les intérieurs dépouillés qui racontent le froid et la solitude.
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Nicolas Philibert
about I, Pierre Rivière Having Slaughtered My Mother, My Sister And My Brother
of René Allio
This movie has never ceased to be on my mind. It is a work of fiction that also takes much from documentary. And it is a new way to treat history in a movie.