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Jean-Pierre Mocky

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Jean-Pierre Mocky
Mocky at the "Sous les Projecteurs" festival in 1995
Born
Jean-Paul Adam Mokiejewski

(1929-07-06)6 July 1929[1]
Nice, France
Died8 August 2019(2019-08-08) (aged 90)
Paris, France
Occupation(s)Director, actor, screenwriter, producer
Years active1955–2019
Spouse(s)Monique Baudin (1946)
Véronique Nordey (divorced)
Children1

Jean-Pierre Mocky (6 July 1929 – 8 August 2019), pseudonym of Jean-Paul Adam Mokiejewski, was a French film director, actor, screenwriter and producer.

Early life and education

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Mocky was born on 6 July[2] 1929[1] in Nice, France, to Polish immigrant parents, Jeanne Zylinska and Adam Mokiejewski. His father was Jewish and his mother was Catholic.[2]

Career

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Mocky appeared as an actor in the 1955 film Gli Sbandati and in many other movies, including some of those he also directed (Solo, L'albatros, L'Ombre d'une chance, Un Linceul n'a pas de poches). His 1987 film Le Miraculé was entered into the 37th Berlin International Film Festival.[3]

Mocky in 1948

He began as an actor in the cinema and theater. In particular, he played in Jean Dréville's Les Casse-pieds (1948), Jean Cocteau's Orphée (1950) and Bernard Borderie's The Mask of the Gorilla (1957). But it was especially in Italy that he became famous, thanks to his role in I vinti by Michelangelo Antonioni.

After working as an assistant with Luchino Visconti on Senso (1954) and Federico Fellini on La strada (1954), he wrote his first film, La Tête contre les murs (1959) and planned to direct it himself, but the producer preferred to entrust the task to Georges Franju. He went on to direct the following year with Les Dragueurs (1959).[4]

As early as the 1960s, he was able to reach a wide audience with crazy comedies such as A Funny Parishioner (1963) and La Grande Lessive (1968). After May 1968, he turned to darker films with Solo (1969), in which he shows a group of young anarchists, then L'Albatros (1971) which shows the corruption of politicians.[5]

In the 1980s, he returned to success with a film denouncing, a year before the drama of Heysel, the excesses of some football fans (À mort l'arbitre, 1984) and a comedy denouncing the hypocrisy around the pilgrimage to Lourdes (Le Miraculé, 1987). In the 1990s and 2000s, his films met with less success, but Mocky continued to shoot with much enthusiasm.[citation needed]

In the beginning, his films were dedicated to the uprising against the restrictions imposed by society. Later, he concentrated on farce, as in Bonsoir where the homeless Alex (Michel Serrault) pretends to be the lover of the lesbian Caroline (Claude Jade) in order to save her inheritance from her homophobic relatives.[citation needed]

Mocky's cinema, often satirical, is generally inspired by the truth of society. He worked with few resources and filmed very quickly. He worked with Bourvil (A Funny Parishioner, The City of Unspeakable Fear, La Grande Lessive and The Stallion), Fernandel (The Exchange and Life), Michel Simon (The Red Ibis), Michel Serrault (twelve films including Le Miraculé), Francis Blanche (five films including The City of Unspeakable Fear), Jacqueline Maillan (five films), Jean Poiret (eight films) and with the stars Catherine Deneuve (Agent Trouble), Claude Jade (Bonsoir), Jane Birkin (Noir comme le souvenir), Jeanne Moreau (Le Miraculé) and Stéphane Audran (The Seasons of Pleasure).

Awards and recognition

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In 2010, he received the Prix Henri-Langlois for his entire career, and in 2013 was awarded the Alphonse Allais Prize.[6]

The International Festival of Film Entrevues in Belfort in 2012 and the Cinémathèque française in 2014 dedicated full retrospectives to him.[7][8]

Mocky was described as a "perpetual guest" of the Festival Polar de Cognac, and was given a Polar lifetime achievement award in 2015.[9]

Death

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He died on 8 August 2019.[2]

Filmography (as director)

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1960s

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1970s

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1980s

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1990s

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2000s

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2010s

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Filmography (as actor)

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Bibliography

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  • Prédal, René (1988). Jean-Pierre Mocky. Lherminier/Quatre-Vents.
  • Haustrate, Gaston (1989). Entretiens avec Jean-Pierre Mocky. Édilig.
  • Le Roy, Éric (2000). Jean-Pierre Mocky. Ciné-regards. Bibliothèque du film/Durante.

References

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  1. ^ a b Porte, Sébastien (10 August 2019). "Stanislas Nordey : "Je me disais que Mocky était un grand artiste, pas forcément un père"". Télérama (in French). Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  2. ^ a b c "Jean-Pierre Mocky obituary". TheGuardian.com. 16 August 2019.
  3. ^ "Berlinale: 1987 Programme". berlinale.de. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  4. ^ Moskowitz, Gene (15 April 1959). "Les Draguers (The Girl Hunters)". Variety: 24.
  5. ^ Guérif, François (1983). Le Cinéma policier français (in French). Artefact. pp. 149–150.
  6. ^ Iacomacci, Tiffany (8 August 2019). "Le réalisateur Jean-Pierre Mocky est décédé". GQ France (in French). Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  7. ^ "2012 Retrospectives". Festival Entrevues. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  8. ^ "Rétrospective Jean-Pierre Mocky - La Cinémathèque française". www.cinematheque.fr. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  9. ^ Bec, Bernard (9 August 2021). "A Brief History of Cognac's POLAR Festival". CrimeReads. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
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