Maurice Pialat Movies and Career Information

Maurice Pialat (21 August 1925 – 11 January 2003) was a French film director, screenwriter and actor noted for the rigorous and unsentimental style of his films. His work is often described as being "realist", though many film critics acknowledge that it does not fit the traditional definition of realism. Pialat originally intended to become a painter, but met with little success. Having acquired a camera at age 16, he tried his hand at documentary films before making his first notable short, L'Amour existe, in 1960. Pialat came to filmmaking late. He directed his feature-length debut, 1969's L'Enfance Nue (The Naked Childhood) at the age of 44. The film, which was co-produced by French New Wave director François Truffaut, won the Prix Jean Vigo. During his 35 year career, Pialat completed only ten major features, many of which—most notably Loulou--have been interpreted as being autobiographical. He directed Gérard Depardieu in three films, including Sous le soleil de Satan (Under the Sun of Satan), for which Pialat won the Palme d'Or at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival. In a posthumous tribute written for the French film magazine Positif, critic Noël Herpe referred to Pialat's style