Nicolas Philibert
Birth date10 January 1951 (age 75)
Birth placeNancy, France
OccupationFilm director, actor
Years active1978-present
Alma materUniversity of Grenoble

Nicolas Philibert (nikɔla filibɛʁ; born 10 January 1951) is a French film director and actor.

Biography

Philibert was born in Nancy, France. He studied philosophy in the University of Grenoble.[1] Philibert's father was a film lecturer and he attended his talks in his youth, which encouraged him to embark on a career in the film industry. He started it with filmmaker René Allio in 1970,[2] as a trainee on Les Camisards[3] and then as an assistant on Rude Journée pour la reine (1973),[4] and assistant-director on Moi, Pierre Rivière, ayant égorgé ma mère, ma sœur et mon frère... (1975).[5][6]

In 1978 he co-directed with Gérard Mordillat a feature documentary His Master's Voice,[7][8] in which a dozen bosses of big industrial groups discuss power, leadership, hierarchies and the role of unions.

Between 1985 and 1987, he made several films about mountains and adventure for TV, then turned to making feature-length documentaries for theatrical distribution: La Ville Louvre (1990), Le Pays des sourds (1992),[9] Un animal, des animaux (1995),[10] La Moindre des choses (1996) [11] - at the psychiatric clinic of La Borde, as well as an experimental film with the pupils of the theatre school Théâtre national de Strasbourg, Qui sait? (1998).

In 2001, Nicolas Philibert made Être et avoir, about daily life in a single class school on a small village in the Auvergne. It won the Prix Louis Delluc 2002, and became a box office and critical success in France and internationally. The film was screened out of competition at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.[12]

With Retour en Normandie (2007),[13] he revisited the traces of a previous films, made thirty years earlier by René Allio, with local peasants playing the lead roles. With Nénette (2010),[14] made at the Ménagerie du Jardin des plantes in Paris, he produced an intimated portrait of the most famous of its inhabitants a female orang-utang, Nénette, held in captivity for 36 years.

La Maison de la radio (2013),[15] takes us into the heart of the French Radio headquarters in Paris, finding out who inhabits the place and discovering the mysteries of its long corridors.

Over the last fifteen years there have been more than 120 retrospectives or 'homages' to Philibert organised internationally including the British Film Institute (London) and the Museum of Modern Art (New York).[16][17]

He was one of the directors invited to nominate his favourite films in the British Film Institute's 2012 poll.[18]

He explains, in French, his motivations, his influences (including Agnès Varda) and the history of his career as a documentary film maker, especially the 'impermeable' frontiers between documentary and drama in an interview recorded in April 2012.[19]

Filmography

YearEnglish titleOriginal titleNote
1978His Master's VoiceLa Voix de son maître
1985ChristopheShort film
1987Trilogy for One ManTrilogie pour un homme seul
1988Baquet's ComebackLe Come-back de BaquetShort film
1988Go for It, Lapébie!Vas-y Lapébie !Short film
1990Louvre CityLa Ville Louvre
1992In the Land of the DeafLe Pays des sourds
1996AnimalsUn animal, des animaux
1997Every Little ThingLa Moindre des choses
1999Who Knows?Qui sait?
2002To Be and to HaveÊtre et avoir
2007Back to NormandyRetour en Normandie
2010Nénette
2013La Maison de la radio
2018Each and Every MomentDe chaque instant
2023On the AdamantSur l'Adamant
2024At Averroès & Rosa ParksAverroès & Rosa Parks
The Typewriter and Other HeadachesLa Machine à écrire et autres sources de tracas[20]

References

  1. ^ "Nicolas Philibert". International Film Festival Rotterdam. Archived 13 February 2023 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
  2. ^ "René Allio at Allocine". Allocine. Allocine. Archived 3 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ^ "Les Camisards on allocine". Allocine. Allocine. Archived 7 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ^ "Rude Journée on Allocine". Allocine. Allocine. Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ^ "Moi Pierre Rivière on allocine". Allocine. Allocine. Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ^ "Allocine on Philbert". Allocine. Archived 28 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ^ "Gérard Mordillat on Allocine". Allocine. Allocine. Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ^ "His Master's Voice (La Voix de son maitre) on allocine". Allocine. Allocine. Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ^ "Le pays des sourds (Land of the deaf) on allocine". Allocine. Allocine. Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  10. ^ "Un animal, des animaux (One animal, some animals) on Allocine". Allocine. allocine. Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  11. ^ "Moindre des choses on IMDB". IMDB. IMDB. Archived 26 July 2022 at the Wayback Machine.
  12. ^ "Festival de Cannes: To Be and to Have". festival-cannes.com. Archived 10 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 3 November 2009.
  13. ^ "Retour en Normandie (Return to Normandy) on Allocine". Allocine. Allocine. Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  14. ^ "Nénette on Allocine". Allocine. Allocine. Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  15. ^ "La Maison de la radio on Allocine". Allocine. Allocine. Archived 28 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  16. ^ "Philibert at MOMA". MOMA website. MOMA. Archived 3 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  17. ^ "Sabzian retrospective". Sabzian.be. Sabzian. Archived 21 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  18. ^ "2012 BFI Greatest Film poll". British Film Institute. British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 27 August 2012.
  19. ^ "Entretien avec Nicolas Philibert, réalisateur de "La nuit tombe sur la ménagerie"". Utube. Utube. April 2012. Archived 25 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine.
  20. ^ Isabelle Danel. "Machine à écrire et autres sources de tracas de Nicolas Philibert" (in French). Bande à part