Paul Vecchiali
French director and producer (1930 - 2023).
Paul Vecchiali grew up in the dark theatres of the late 1930s and the Occupation. There, he honed his aptly named “En-cine-clopedia”, from Grémillon to Carné/Prévert, at the intersection of realism and the fantastic, from the daily lives of the working classes to melodramas about crazy love. His youth coincided with the Nouvelle Vague. Spotted by Truffaut in 1961, from this period he retained a taste for straight shooters like Bresson, Godard, or Demy. As an independent producer, he followed the beginnings of Eustache then founded Diagonale, producing Jean-Claude Biette, Marie-Claude Treilhou, Jean-Claude Guiget, or Gérard Frot-Coutaz. In the evocative Femmes femmes (1974), a favourite of Pasolini’s, he probes dubious desires from the 1970s to the AIDS years. What of the twenty-first century? Fond of light technology (5D, iPhone), Vecchiali pursues a career that is as prolific as it is unpredictable, with so-called “antidogma” films, since his only rule is that there are no rules.
Les Petits drames (1961) – Les Ruses du diable (1965) – L’Étrangleur (1972) – Femmes Femmes (1974) – Change pas de main (1975) – La Machine (1977) – Drugstore Love (1978) – That's Life (1980) – At the Top of the Stairs (1983) – Trous de mémoire (1984) – Rosa la rose, fille publique (1985) – Once More (1987) – The Guys in the Cafe (1988) – Wonderboy (1994) – Zone franche (1996) – Love Reinvented (1996) – À vot’ bon cœur (2004) – Bareback ou la guerre des sens (2005) – Et + si @ff (2006) – …Et tremble d’être heureux (2007) – Humeurs et Rumeurs (2008) – Les Gens d’en-bas (2010) – Retour à Mayerling (2011) –Faux Accords (2013) – Nuits blanches sur la jetée (2015) – C’est l’amour (2015) – Le Cancre (2016) – Les Sept Déserteurs ou la guerre en vrac (2017) – Train de vies ou les voyages d’Angélique (2018) – Un soupçon d’amour (2019) – Pas... de quartier (2022)