Since the announcement of the disappearance of Jean-François Stévenin, who died Tuesday at the age of 77, tributes have multiplied on social networks.
Some have praised his "humanity", still others his "benevolence", and all have honored his film career, as an actor or filmmaker.
Because Jean-François Stévenin has marked French cinema both behind the camera and in front.
A prolific actor seen in films as eclectic as
Pocket money by
François Truffaut or
Le pacte des loups
by Christophe Gans, he has also made three films considered to be cult.
A round face and piercing blue eyes
Born in the Jura in 1944, this former student at HEC, with a romantic and treacherous background, discovered film sets during an internship in Cuba… on dairy production. “I didn't know how to do anything, but I learned to speak Spanish very quickly, and I melted into the team. Incognito, ”he said. In 1968, he became assistant to Alain Cavalier on the set of
La Chamade
. “For ten years, I was an assistant, I never thought of playing. (…) And in
Out One
, by Jacques Rivette, where Juliet Berto had said: "It's funny, the assistant looks like Brando, why wouldn't he play Marlon?" The scene was kept for editing, ”he recalled in 2000 for
Liberation
.
His round face and piercing blue eyes quickly made him a familiar figure in French cinema.
In the 1980s, he toured under the direction of Jean-Luc Godard (
Passion
), Bertrand Blier (
Notre histoire
) and Catherine Breillat (
36 Fillette
).
Then came the more popular films such as
Le Pacte des loups
(2001), where he played with Vincent Cassel and Samuel Le Bihan, or even
L'Homme du train
(2002) directed by Patrice Leconte.
His latest film,
Illusions perdues
by Xavier Giannoli, adapted from Balzac, is due to be screened at the Venice Film Festival in September.
Three acclaimed films
If he marked film lovers on the screen, Jean-François Stévenin also marked the spirits as a director. With the film
Passe Montagne
(1978), which gives one of his best roles to Jacques Villeret and follows the meeting between an architect broken down and a mechanic, in the depths of the Jura. Then
Double Messieurs
in 1985, which retraces the mop of two men, childhood friends, in search of the one who was their pain point when they were children. The last,
Mischka
(2002), depicts the encounter between a grandfather abandoned by his family on the motorway and a nurse in a hospice.
His films, where nature is very present, are marked by the cinema of Cassavetes.
Like the American filmmaker, he enjoys filming those close to him, including his children.
He has four, all actors: Sagamore, Robinson, Salomé and Pierre.
In 2018, his work as a filmmaker earned him a Jean-Vigo Honorary Award, which was awarded to him by Agnès Varda.
This award distinguishes independence of mind, quality and originality.
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