Paris (AFP)

He was "more attracted to his different than to his fellow man": prolific writer and screenwriter, Jean-Claude Carrière, who died Monday at the age of 89, leaves to those who have read him or worked with him the image of " wizard of words ".

Appreciated as much by critics as by the public, the one who defined himself as a "storyteller" was a true athlete of writing, at the crossroads of cinema, theater and literature.

"He had all the talents and excelled in everything", summarized the editor Odile Jacob: "He was a giant of creation".

He has written around sixty scripts as well as around 80 books (stories, essays, such as his Dictionaries in love with India and Mexico, translations, fictions, interviews).

He was an actor, playwright and lyricist for Juliette Gréco, Brigitte Bardot or Jeanne Moreau.

Carrière had "a charm and a crazy intelligence", greeted the president of the Cannes Film Festival Pierre Lescure.

His predecessor Gilles Jacob also paid tribute to his "prodigious intelligence", his "phenomenal culture", his "limpid style" and his "dazzling conversation".

"There is something in me which is satisfied to be at the service of an author, to flow into his thought, to adapt it as well as possible. I have no ego", assured this distinguished humanist, affable, with great working power and corrosive humor.

Jean-Claude Carrière has placed his life under the sign of "meetings, friendships and masters of life", like the Dalai Lama, with whom he wrote a book, or Luis Bunuel, with whom he collaborated for nineteen years. , to his death.

He was "a spiritual father", greeted in a last "farewell" the grandson of the Spanish filmmaker and current director of programs for France Televisions, Diego Bunuel.

Another important meeting: the British playwright Peter Brook for whom he adapted "Mahâbhârata", an epic from Hindu mythology, presented for nine hours at the Avignon festival in 1985 to a shocked audience for the stage.

- Passion for religions -

"Radically atheist", but "passionate about religion and its deviances", foreign to any fanaticism, he wrote on Buddhism, Hinduism or Christianity with his most famous novel, "La controverse de Valladolid", on the conquest of the New World by the Spaniards, declined in play and television adaptation.

We also owe him works on Islam, through his translations of Persian poetry, with his wife, the Iranian writer Nahal Tajadod, by whom he had a daughter.

Honorary Oscar in 2014 for his work as a screenwriter, he is in the credits of major films: "The Diary of a chambermaid", "Belle de jour" and "The discreet charm of the bourgeoisie" (Luis Bunuel), "Taking Off" (Milos Forman), "Borsalino" (Jacques Deray), "Le tambour" (Volker Schlondorff, Palme d'Or in Cannes), "Danton" (Andrzej Wajda, Louis Delluc prize 1982), "L'insoutenable lightness of being "(Philipp Kaufman)," Cyrano de Bergerac "(Jean-Paul Rappeneau)," The return of Martin Guerre "(Daniel Vigne), which earned him the César for best screenplay in 1983.

Born on September 17, 1931 in Colombières-sur-Orb (Hérault) to winegrower parents who moved up near Paris in 1945 to open a café, Carrière was a brilliant student.

Having become a scholarship holder, he rose to Normale Sup.

At 26, he signs his first novel, "Le Lézard", does his military service in Algeria, meets the director Jacques Tati and the beginner Pierre Etaix.

With the latter, he received the 1962 Oscar for best short fiction film for "Happy Birthday".

Bibliophile, passionate about drawing, astrophysics, wine and many other things, fan of tai-chi-chuan (martial art), Jean-Claude Carrière chaired for ten years the Fémis, the prestigious film school .

Still very active despite his age, in 2018 he wrote a last essay, "The valley of nothingness", and co-signed in 2020 the screenplay for the feature film "Le sel des larmes" by Philippe Garrel.

© 2021 AFP