Paris (AFP)
Jean-Claude Carrière, prolific writer and genius screenwriter alongside Luis Bunuel, Jacques Deray or more recently Philippe Garrel, defined himself as a "storyteller", "more attracted by his different than by his similar".
Appreciated as much by critics as by the public, he was a true "athlete" of writing, at the crossroads between cinema, theater and literature.
In total, he has signed 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 also an actor, playwright and lyricist for Juliette Gréco, Brigitte Bardot or Jeanne Moreau.
"I have worked on all forms of writing. I think I have a good arsenal. There is something in me that is satisfied to be at the service of an author, to flow into his thought, to l 'adapt as well as possible. I have no ego, "assured this distinguished and affable humanist with great work power and corrosive humor.
Strong, solid, short beard and light salt and pepper mustache, short hair, 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 the Spanish filmmaker Luis Bunuel, with whom he worked for nineteen years, until his death.
Another important meeting: that of the British playwright Peter Brook for whom he adapted to the stage the unequaled "Mahâbhârata", an epic of Hindu mythology, presented for nine hours in a row in Avignon in 1985 in front of a shocked audience.
"Seeing it while forgetting that I had written it was one of the great joys" of my life, he assured.
- Passion for religions -
"Radically atheist", but "passionate about religion and its deviances", foreign to any fanaticism, he wrote on Buddhism and Hinduism but also on Christianity with his most famous novel, "La controverse de Valladolid", on the conquest of the New World by the Spaniards, available as a 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).
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), "The drum" (Volker Schlondorff, Palme d'Or in Cannes), "Danton" (Andrzej Wajda, Louis Delluc prize 1982), "The unbearable lightness of being" (Philipp Kaufman ), "Cyrano de Bergerac" (Jean-Paul Rappeneau), "Le retour de Martin Guerre" (Daniel Vigne) which earned him the César for best screenplay in 1983.
In 2014 he received an honorary Oscar for his work as a screenwriter.
Born on September 17, 1931 in Colombières-sur-Orb (Hérault) to winegrower parents who came up near Paris in 1945 to open a café, the young man quickly turned out to be a brilliant student.
He becomes a scholarship holder, jumps in the social elevator which propels him to Normale Sup.
At 26, he signs his first novel, "Le Lézard", does his military service in Algeria, meets 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 National Superior School image and sound professions.
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