Philippe Grandrieux
Philippe Grandrieux is a French film director and screenwriter. He studied film at the INSAS in Belgium. In 1976, he exhibited his first video work at Galerie Albert Baronian, Bruxelles.
He works in several areas of kinetic visual arts, including: television experiments, feature films, documentaries, performance, installation, staging.
Work
Television experiments
In the 1980s, he worked in collaboration with the French Institut national de l'audiovisuel and the television channel La Sept/Arte where he helped develop new cinematographic forms and formats that reconsider some basic principles of film writing such as the conventions behind documentary, information and film essays. In 1990, he created the “Live” film research laboratory, which produced one-hour-long sequences by Robert Kramer, Robert Frank,, Nick Waplington, Dominique Dubosc, Daniele Incalcatera, Christian Argentino, Lasse Naukkarinen among others.Feature films
In 1998, his first feature Sombre won the Special Jury Prize at the Locarno Film Festival. Starring Elina Lowensohn and Marc Barbé.In 2002, A New Life was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Starring Zach Knighton, Anna Mouglalis, Marc Barbé and Zsolt Nagy.
In 2008, A Lake was ready for the 65th Venice Film Festival. It won a Special Mention in the Orizzonti Section which rewards movies that initiate new cinematographic trends. With Dmitry Kubasov, Natalie Rehorova, Alexei Solonchev.
In 2016, Despite The Night, with Christian Marr, Ariane Labed, Roxane Mesquida, Paul Hamy, Aurélien Recoing, was premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. The film was also at Critics' Week during the Berlinale, at Film Comment Selects - Lincoln Center - New York.
In 2018, Grandrieux directed La Lumière, la lumière in the frame of "Liminal" including four films, from Lav Diaz, Manuel de Laborde, Oscar Enriquez and Philippe Grandrieux. The proposal was to play on the poetic affinities between cinema and music. Liminal was commissioned by FICUNAM and UNAM. With Camille Grandrieux and Lola Norda.
2025 Grandrieux prepares his new feature film Marcus. Screenplay co-written with Jonathan Littell.
Video clip
In 2007 Marilyn Manson asked Grandrieux to direct the video for the song "Putting Holes in Happiness" from his album Eat Me, Drink Me.Documentary
His last documentary It May Be That Beauty Has Strengthened Our Resolve - Masao Adachi won in 2011 the New:Vision Award at CPH:DOX - Copenhagen, in 2012 the Great Experimental Prize at Festival Côté Court - Pantin, France and in 2013 The Great Prize For Documentary at the Tripoli Film Festival - Lebanon. This film was previewed at the Cinémathèque Française, at the Centre Pompidou, at Fid Marseille and then in more than 40 festivals.Films, performances, installations
In 2012 Grandrieux started a work inspired by the concept of «the bare life» from the philosopher Giorgio Agamben. Each movement, White Epilepsy, Meurtrière and Unrest, is a film and a performance with dancers. Each film was presented for the first time at FID Marseille. This work was also presented at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Radcliffe Institute - Harvard University, the University of Chicago, Centre Pompidou-Metz, ICI-CCN - Montpellier, and CCN - Le Havre.In 2019, The Empty Gallery presented the exhibition "The Bare Life" with the trilogy White Epilepsy, Meurtrière, Unrest, and The Scream, an installation of eleven projections.
Staging and videos
In May and June 2023, his staging and videos for Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde were presented at the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in Antwerp and Ghent, then in June 2024 at the Opéra de Rouen, France.Teaching
2012 / 2013: Visiting Fiction Film Professor at Harvard UniversityFellowship
2015 / 2016: at Harvard UniversityAwards
1983 Juste une Image co-author with Louisette Neil and Thierry Garrel- Grand Prix Scam
1983 Pleine Lune co-author with Jérôme Prieur and Thierry Kuntzel
- Prix de l’Association française des critiques de télévision
1998 Sombre
- Festival de Locarno: Special Mention of the jury
2009 Un lac
- 65th Mostra of Venice Orizzonti: Special Mention of the jury
2009 Un lac
- International Film Festival of Las Palmas: Best Photography + Special Mention for Innovation
2016 Meurtrière
- Festival du nouveau cinéma de Montréal: Prix FNC LAB
- Festival FilMadrid: Mention spéciale du jury
2011 It May Be That Beauty Has Strengthened Our Resolve - Masao Adachi
- CPH:DOX Copenhagen Documentary Film Festival, Danemark: «New:Vision Award»
- Festival Côté Court, Pantin, France: Great Experimental Prize
- Tripoli Festival, Liban: Great Prize For Documentary «Cultural Resistance»
Solo Retrospectives
Since 2005, programs devoted to Grandrieux's features, installations, documentary work and shorts have been presented across the world.2005: «Philippe Grandrieux» États généraux du film documentaire, Lussas, France
2007: «Breathless, French New New Wave» Australian Cinematheque, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
2008: «Extreme Love, around Philippe Grandrieux» Uplink, Tokyo
2008: «Philippe Grandrieux» Tate Modern, London, as part of "Paradise Now! Essential French Avant-Garde cinema 1890-2008». With A New Life , The Late Season ', the video clip Putting Holes in Happiness and an extract from A Lake .
2009: «Ciclo Philippe Grandrieux» International Film Festival of Guadalajara, Mexico
2009: «Ciclo Philippe Grandrieux» Cineteca Nacional, Mexico
2009: «Ciclo Philippe Grandrieux» Belo Horizonte and São Paulo, Brazil
2009: «Ciclo Philippe Grandrieux» International Film Festival of Cali, Colombia
2009: «All about Philippe Grandrieux» CPH:DOX International Film Festival of Copenhagen, Denmark
2010: «Film Comment Selects: Philippe Grandrieux» Lincoln Center, New York, USA
2010: «Philippe Grandrieux» Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge, USA
2010: «Philippe Grandrieux» International Film Festival of Las Palmas, Spain
2011: «World Cinema Now» Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
2012: «Philippe Grandrieux Artist in Focus» Courtisane, Gent, Belgium
2012: «Hommage» organisé par la revue Hors Champ et la Cinémathèque Québécoise, dans le cadre du Festival du nouveau cinéma, Montreal
2013: «Carte Blanche à Philippe Grandrieux» Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US. With the film White Epilepsy and the performance piece Meurtrière.
2016: «Philippe Grandrieux Artist in Focus» 17th Jeonju IFF, South Korea
2017: «Philippe Grandrieux» Milan
2017: «Philippe Grandrieux» Seville
2017: «Philippe Grandrieux Tribute» Thessaloniki
2017: «Philippe Grandrieux» ACFK Uherské Hradiště, Czech Republic
2019: White Epilepsy, Meurtrière, Unrest as well as The Scream, an installation of eleven projections, have been presented at the Empty Gallery/Hong Kong in a solo exhibition entitled '.
2019: «Cinéma d’avant-garde: Philippe Grandrieux» Cinémathèque française, Paris. With Sombre, La Vie nouvelle, Un lac, Malgré la nuit', ''White Epilepsy', Meurtrière', Unrest and L'Arrière-saison'.''
2023: «Rétrospective Philippe Grandrieux» La Filmothèque du quartier latin, Paris
Scripts
1998 Sombre / Written in collaboration with Pierre Hogdson et Sophie Fillière1999 Karain / Adaptation of Karain, The Tales of Unrest by Joseph Conrad
2002 A New Life '' / Written in collaboration with Éric Vuillard
2008 A Lake ''
2010 The Killing Room / Written in collaboration with Geoff Cox
2012 Beyond The Night '' / Written in collaboration with Bertrand Schefer, Rebeca Zlotowski et John-Henry Butterworth
2022 Marcus / Written in collaboration with Jonathan Littell
Publications
Texts by Philippe GrandrieuxTwo drawings and one text for Médéa by Stephan Crasneanscki, , 2024
En vrac, Mettray, ed. Didier Morin, 2022
Troubles, Mettray, ed. Didier Morin, 2021
Au bord d’un lac : Qu’est-ce que le réel ? Des cinéastes prennent position, dir. Andréa Picard, ed. Post-éditions - Cinéma du réel, 2018
Journal de tournage, Malgré la nuit, Trafic, n° 98, ed. P.O.L, été 2016
Journal de tournage, Malgré la nuit, Mettray, ed. Didier Morin, 2016
Philippe Grandrieux à propos d’Ariane Labed, , # 3, p 62. 2015
La Première image, un texte écrit à l’occasion de la parution du n° 700 des Cahiers du cinéma, 2014
Congo, Trafic n° 83, P.O.L, automne 2012
Les Morts, Trafic n° 84, P.O.L, hiver 2012
À quoi bon une image, Le cinéma critique, de l’argentique au numérique, voies et formes de l’objection visuelle : Sorbonne Université Presses, 2010
Sous le ciel de Dwoskin, Trafic n° 76, ed. P.O.L, hiver 2010
Bad Lieutnant d’Abel Ferrara, a text by Philippe Grandrieux, commissioned by Nicole Brenez for the booklet of the DVD edition of Bad Lieutnant, 2005
Correspondance sur La Vie nouvelle, Philippe Grandrieux et Éric Vuillard, Trafic n° 44, P.O.L, hiver 2002
L’Emprise, Trafic n° 38, ed. P.O.L., été 2001
Sur l’horizon insensé du cinéma, Cahiers du cinéma, hors-série, novembre 2000
Incendie, Trafic n° 16, ed. P.O.L., autome 1995
One Summer, Livraison n°4 Open Landscapes – Closed rooms, 2009–2010, p. 174, 175, 186