Recent Obituaries, Classic Films Only

[CBHagman]

54. Director Patrice Chereau, 68.

[url]http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/oct/08/patrice-chereau[/url]

Unusually for a director, Patrice Chéreau, who has died of lung cancer aged 68, had more or less equally prestigious careers in the theatre, cinema and opera. Although he was internationally known from films such as La Reine Margot (1994) and his groundbreaking production of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle at Bayreuth (1976), he was renowned in his native France mostly for his "must-see" stage productions, especially during his long stints as co-director of the Théâtre National Populaire (1971-77) and the Théâtre des Amandiers (1982-90).

At these two subsidised theatres, in Villeurbanne, near Lyons, and Nanterre, in western Paris, respectively, Chéreau was able to introduce modern plays and bring a freshness to bear on the classics, particularly Marivaux, whose La Dispute he directed to acclaim at the TNP in three different versions in the 1970s. At the Amandiers, his sensational 1983 production of Jean Genet's Les Paravents (The Screens) used the auditorium as an extension of the stage.

(SNIP)

In contrast to the rather melancholy mode of his first few films, La Reine Margot was a rumbustious adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel set during the religious war between the Catholics and the Protestants in late-16th-century France. With its battle scenes, sumptuous settings and depiction of the St Bartholomew's day massacre, it was Chéreau's most expensive and – at 161 minutes – longest film and his biggest box-office success by far. It led to a whole series of historical epics from France.

On a smaller scale and with much handheld camerawork, Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train (Ceux Qui M'Aiment Prendront le Train, 1998), about the interplay of assorted characters on their way to the funeral of a misanthropic, bisexual minor painter (Jean-Louis Trintignant), was melodramatic, sentimental and emptily wordy.

Film credits:

[url]http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0161717/[/url]