Jacques Rozier


Jacques Rozier was a French film director and screenwriter. He was one of the lesser-known members of the French New Wave movement and has collaborated with Jean-Luc Godard. Three of his films have been screened at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1978, he was a member of the jury at the 28th Berlin International Film Festival.

Life

Rozier was born in Paris on 10 November 1926. He attended the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques, where he graduated from in 1947, and quickly became known for his work in short films. In 1955, he directed his first short film, Back to School. It was followed by Blue Jeans, a warm portrait of French youth after World War II. His next two short films, Paparazzi and Le Parti des choses, were documentaries about the filming of Contempt, the famous film by Jean-Luc Godard. Paparazzi offers a candid look at the intense media atention surrounding one of cinema’s biggest stars and is regarded as an early cinematic exploration of the rise of celebrity culture and the loss of privacy that often accompanies international fame.
Rozier also worked as an assistant on film sets, including for Jean Renoir’s French Cancan in 1955. He later worked at the Buttes-Chaumont television studios. This job led him to make documentary films, which helped support him between feature films. Although his feature films often received strong critical praise, most of them were not commercial successes.

Career

His first film, Adieu Philippine, was released in 1962 and it premiered in the inaugural edition of Cannes Critics' Week in the same year. Featuring a young amateur cast scouted on the streets of Paris, this bittersweet story about French youth during the Algerian War received very positive reactions from both critics and audiences. It was particularly embraced by Cahiers du Cinéma and influenced the New Wave filmmakers who emerged from the magazine's staff.Rozier's debut film was listed as a forgotten masterpiece in the British film magazine Sight & Sound in 2007.
His next film, Du Côté d'Orouët, was released in 1969. It tells the story of a middle-class family on holiday and stars Bernard Ménez and Caroline Cartier. In 1974, Rozier directed The Castaways of Turtle Island, starring Pierre Richard. The film shares themes with Goodbye Philippine, such as ironic humor, dreamlike moods, and a sense of escapism.
Maine Ocean marked a more intimate style. The film, which won the Jean Vigo Prize in 1986, follows several characters on a real-time train journey and stars Bernard Ménez, Luis Rego, and Yves Afonso.
In 2021, Rozier presented his final film, Fifi Martingale, at the Venice Film Festival, but never secured theatrical distribution. The film tells the story of a successful theatre director and writer who rewrite his new comedy to escape the clutches of a cabal with unexpected consequences. It stars Jean Lefebvre, Yves Afonso, Alexandra Stewart, and Jacques François.
While Rozier's films were acclaimed by critics and filmmakers, and he worked into his seventies, he never became as famous as some of the other New Wave directors. The New Yorker dubbed him the "odd man out" among the movement.
From 2 to 26 November 2001, a complete retrospective of Jacques Rozier was held at the Centre Pompidou. The event showed that Rozier's work extends beyond the five feature films released in theaters. He produced around thirty works in various formats and lengths, including both television and cinema projects. In 1996, The Festival La Rochelle Cinéma paid tribute to the French director by devoting a retrospective to him.
In recognition of his career, Rozier received the René Clair Prize from the French Film Academy in 1997 and the Carrosse d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022, awards honoring his lifetime contribution to cinema.

Style

Rozier was known for his unconventional storytelling and preference for alternative cinematic paths.
The French Cinémathèque described Rozier as a filmmaker who embraced improvisation and narrative detours, valuing freedom and spontaneity over strict structure. It referred to him as “freedom itself” and highlighted the lasting emotional impact of his work.
In 2019, Jean-Luc Godard said that he and Rozier were the last two New Wave filmmakers alive, following the death of Agnès Varda. Godard died in 2022 and Rozier died the following year, at the age of 96. He died in Théoule-sur-Mer on 31 May 2023, at the age of 96.
A marriage to Michèle O'Glor ended in divorce. They had a son who died in 2022.

Filmography

Features

Shorts

Rentrée des classes Blue Jeans Dans Le Vent Paparazzi Le Parti des choses Nono Nénesse Lettre de la Sierra Morena
  • ''Comment devenir cinéaste sans se prendre la tête''

TV work