French Movie Star and Producer Jacques Perrin Dies At Age 80

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A handsome and soft-spoken veteran French actor, Jacques Perrin has made the transition from acting in musicals and dramatic films to directing and producing, particularly in Costa-Gavras’s and his own political thrillers. poetic documentaries about the natural world, died in Paris on April 21. He was 80 years old.

His son, Mathieu Simonet, confirmed the death. No reason was given.

Mr. Perrin was a lonely and brave young man in Italian melodrama. “Girl with a Suitcase” (1961), the movie in which Claudia Cardinale tries to save a vile beauty who was destroyed because of her older brother.

Jacques Demy was also a dream sailor. “The Young Daughters of Rochefort” The dizzying, candy-colored 1967 French musical (and now a considered a camping classic). looks like a young David Hockney) and Gene Kelly. (Mrs. Dorléac died in a car accident shortly after the film was shot.)

That same year, Mr. Perrin and Natalie Wood called them “”All Other Girls Do” An Italian joke.

Mr. Perrin went on to play an opportunistic photojournalist who discovers his conscience within himself. Costa-Gavras’ 1969 political thriller “Z”Greek-born director. Mr. Perrin also produced the film, a success of what he called “accounting acrobatics,” since no one else was going to touch the film. (It’s about the real-life assassination of a Greek politician.) completelyMr. Perrin acted in nearly 100 films and produced nearly 40.

But for American audiences, he is best known for his role in the movie “Cinema Paradiso” (1988). He once played the big-eyed 8-year-old Salvatore, a world-weary film director nicknamed Toto. Flashback to the past, Toto is seen as a prisoner of the movies he watched in a theater in a small post-war Sicilian village, and under the wing of Alfredo (Philippe Noiret), the philosophical projectionist father figure who cuts the naughty pieces off the screen. kisses – by order of the village priest.

The final scene was a hum: Mr. Perrin was captured once again while he was weeping magnificently in a dark theater. Critics rolled their eyesbut the audiences weren’t, and it became a hit, winning all sorts of awards, including the Oscar for best foreign film and the Golden Globe.

Mr. Perrin played a similar role in “The Chorus,” which he also produced (2004), about orphans at a brutal boarding school who are rescued by a singing teacher who helps them form the choir. It also became a hit, at least in France, and inspired amateur singing crazes, as did “High School Musical” in the United States a few years later. Mr. Perrin, Speaking to The New York TimesHe described “The Chorus” as “a fragile and precious film about childhood memories”.

Other films were less successful. He produced and co-starred in 1982’s “The Roaring Forties,” about a sailor in a nonstop solo race around the world, based on the real-life adventures of British sailor Donald Crowhurst, who disappeared while on a solo circumnavigation in 1969. Although a reliable blockbuster Julie Christie starred in the lead, the film was so unsuccessful – a “shipwreck” as Le Monde called it – that it took Mr. Perrin 10 years to pay off his accrued debt. while.

“He worked on what was interesting to him,” said Mr. Simonet, who is also an actor, director and producer and often collaborates with his father, in a telephone interview. “His goal wasn’t to make blockbuster movies, even if some of his movies were blockbusters. He was always betting on his life. He followed his dreams without limits.”

Jacques André Simonet was born on 13 July 1941 in Paris. His father, Alexandre Simonet, was the director of the company. La Comedie-Française, the century-old state theater of Paris; His mother, Marie Perrin, was an actress and took the surname Jacques as her stage name. He dropped out of school at the age of 15 and worked as a grocer before going to college. Conservatoire National Superieur d’Art Dramatique.

In addition to his son, he was survived by his wife, valentine’s day perrinwho also has produced movies; sons Maxence and Lancelot; and a sister, Janine Baisadouli. His first marriage to Chantal Bouillaut ended in divorce.

Mr. Perrin, an ardent environmentalist, made hypnotic movies about the natural world. “Microcosmos” (1996) is all about insects. “oceans” (2009) dives underwater. “Winged Migration” (2001) follows the one year of life of migratory birds such as cranes, storks and geese as they fly thousands of miles across 40 countries and all seven continents. at The TimesStephen Holden called it “a comprehensive global tour from a bird’s eye view”.

“Winged Migration” was made for three years under extraordinary conditions, with 14 cinematographers flying birds on ultra-light aircraft built for this purpose. Balloons, remote-controlled gliders and other devices were also used to shoot among the birds, half of whom had been trained at Mr. Perrin’s home in Normandy.

These birds were exposed and stamped on planes as chicks – as Austrian animal zoologist and ornithologist Konrad Lorenz once famously discovered, the chicks would attach themselves to the first large moving object they encountered – so that once they flew in, crews could accompany them like members of the flock. .

“Birds don’t normally fly alongside airplanes and cannot be trained like circus animals.” Patricia Thomson wrote In 2003, in the American Cinematographer magazine. “So Perrin embarked on what would become his biggest print project ever. More than 1,000 eggs representing 25 species were raised by ornithologists and students at a base in Normandy, where Perrin also rented an airport. During the incubation period and early years of life, the chicks were exposed to engine noise and human noise, then trained to follow the pilot – first on foot, then in the air. These birds were to become the main actors, protagonists of the flight. The remainder of the footage will include thousands of wild birds captured in their natural habitat.”

Mr. Perrin wanted moviegoers to feel like birds and feel like they could reach out and touch them, as Mr. Simonet said.

Ultralight aircraft were not easy to fly, Mr. Perrin told James Gorman of The Times. It crashed, leaving the two pilots and the cameraman with minor injuries; no winged creatures were harmed.

“Sometimes a bird at 10,000 feet lands on a cinematographer’s lap and has to be poked with one hand while holding a heavy 35mm film camera with the other,” Mr. Gorman wrote. “There was one absolute rule: No filmmaker with vertigo needs to be valid.”

The scientific advisers in the film were so impressed with the experience of flying with the swarms that many burst into tears when they landed.

“They don’t say such wonderful words,” said Mr. Perrin to Mr. Gorman. “They are crying.”

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