Albert Dupontel
A French director, actor, and scriptwriter, born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1964.
Albert Dupontel studied theatre in the 1980s. He spent two years at the École de Chaillot under the aegis of Antoine Vitez and had a brief period at Ariane Mnouchkine’s theatre. In 1990, from Sales histoires to Sales spectacles, he honed his black humour in cult sketches for television and theatre. On the big screen, he performed for directors such as Audiard, Blier, Noé, or Kervern-Delépine – as well as in his own films. His first feature, Bernie (1996) was an unclassifiable film hailed by Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam, the heralds of British absurdist comedy. Heir to the humanist comedy of Chaplin and Renoir, his films focus on marginalised individuals: from the broken mugs of See You Up There (awarded two Césars in 2018) to contemporary “loons” (from the artist at a loss for inspiration in The Creator to the criminal of 9 Month Stretch, to the suicidal librarian of Bye Bye Morons).
- Short : Désiré (1992)
- Feature Films: Bernie (1996) – The Creator (1999) – Locked Out (2006) – The Villain (2009) – 9 Month Stretch (2013) – See You Up There (2017) – Bye Bye Morons (2020) – Second tour (2023)