The Life of the Characters in Maurice Pialat's Works

Pialat likes painting since he was a child. 1944 he was admitted to university architecture, thinking that he could continue painting. However, his painting genius was denied by the teacher, which was a great blow to Pialat. Some time after graduation, Pialat had a very difficult and embarrassing period. In order to make a living, he worked as a visiting doctor and an agent for shampoo. He loves painting, but his works are not recognized by people. In his busy life, Pialat did not give up the pursuit of painting. 1943, young Pialat met micheline in the parish choir, and both of them were members of the choir. From 65438 to 0949, Pialat married micheline, and micheline accompanied Pialat through this most difficult period.

During this period, Pialat was fascinated by movies. Like many directors of the new wave generation, he has no professional film education, and he makes movies out of his love for movies. 195 1 year, he bought a video camera with his accumulated money and began to try amateur documentary shooting. At this time, Pialat was deeply attracted by early films, especially Lumiere's documentary recording people's life and work in the early 20th century. During this period, Pialat filmed the life documentary Isabelles aux Dombes (1951) and the funny documentary Funny Expression (Dr&; OcircLes de bobines, 1957) and the family documentary "Family Shadow" (L 'ombre familiaè re, 1958). Similar to Chielovsky, the documentary shooting experience deeply influenced Piarat's film view. From 1955 to 1956, Pialat tried to become a dramatic actor. Although he has been in contact with famous actors and screenwriters such as Michelle Vitold and Hugo Betty, Pialat's performance and writing have not received enough recognition.

From 65438 to 0954, Pialat experienced the most important moment in his life. He met Claude Berri, two people of similar age and similar interests, and soon became good friends. This is the most important and crucial friendship between Pialat, and the fate of two important figures in French new film history has been changed. Piat became a frequent visitor to Berry's family, and Berry's family also regarded Piat as their family. Pialat's thoughts on family relations, as well as the stories and characters in the movies later, all come from his experience of interacting with the claude berry family. Berry's father is engaged in fur business, which has to remind people of the role of fur merchant's father in For Our Love. Berry's brother-in-law and sister later became Pialat's most loyal collaborators.

Two people who also love movies are full of fantasy. They encouraged each other and decided to co-produce that kind of "free, relaxed, everyday and direct" film. 1962, they realized this wish, and two people (director Pialat, screenwriter and starring Berry) filmed the first feature film "Janina" (Janina, 1962). In this short film, Berry's then girlfriend Evelyne Ker also played a role. Although she broke up with Berry, Evelyn didn't stop working with Pialat. In For Our Love, she successfully played the mother who was on the verge of collapse.

Soon after, Claude Berri entered the professional film career earlier than Pialat. From 1963, Berry got some film contracts and played some roles in films in claude Chabrol and Henr Georges Clouzot, and in 1966, he co-directed the first feature film "The Destiny of Man" with Michel Simon. At this time, Pialat won a project funded by the Turkish government to shoot some documentaries reflecting the daily life of Turks (1963- 1965). While filming these documentaries, Pialat began to think about the relationship between life, truth and movies, and formally paid tribute to Lumiere whom he admired with his camera. These early documentaries captured the moments in ordinary people's lives, their happiness, loss and pain.

1960, Pialat left micheline and stayed with Colette. Besides Michelin, Colette is the most important woman in Pialat. The two spent six years together, which is also the six years when Pialat's films became mature. During this period, Pialat filmed the short film Love Exists (196 1) and won the Best Short Film Award at the Venice Film Festival. When he was filming a documentary in Turkey, Colette stayed with him and was responsible for the recording. They fell in love, but in the end Colette turned down Pialat's proposal and married a businessman, which made Pialat once fall into endless pain. However, it is this kind of pain that made Pialat write a touching autobiographical novel "We Can't Grow Old Together", and even made him shoot the movie "Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble" with the same name (1972).

This film is the most distinctive film in Pialat. If you don't know Pialat's love experience, it's difficult to deeply understand the characters and narrative of the film. The protagonists Jean and Catherine in the play are Pialat and Colette in reality, and Jean's wife francoise is Michelin. In the film, Katerina accompanied Jean to shoot a documentary in Turkey and was responsible for the recording. francoise accompanied Jean in pain. These facts come from the real experience between Piarat, Colette and micheline. Micheline and Colette always encouraged and supported the unknown Pialat, and supported him throughout his film career until he became famous.

At the end of We Can't Grow Old Together, Katrina swims alone in the sea, where Pialat first meets Venetian Colette Lido Island. Swaying sea water and indifferent tone, in this sad and beautiful ending paragraph, Pialat didn't say a word. In fact, this is Pialat's "most unforgettable memory" of Colette. Everything Pialat wants to say is written at the end of the novel: "I am totally immersed in the darkness. I tossed and turned as before and couldn't sleep. Everything has become another scene. I don't know how long it will take to erase Colette from my memory, but I know that true love is always there, but it is hard to find ... "[7] In addition, in order to commemorate this love, Pialat named his later independent film company" Film Lido "to commemorate this experience. Before becoming a firm aesthetic practitioner, Pialat was first of all a sensitive, affectionate and emotional person.

1966, Pialat ended filming in Turkey, broke up with Colette, and returned to Marseille alone to participate in the filming of a series of documentaries by French television station Les Chroniques de France. These shots have accumulated rich materials for his future films, and many of his film locations come from documentaries of this period. Especially for filming Van Gogh's documentary, Piarat came to Orville-sur-Vaz, the town where Van Gogh lived before his death, and filmed the last place where Van Gogh lived and painted before his death. This experience laid the foundation for him to understand Van Gogh. From the perspective of a painter, Pialat felt and breathed Van Gogh's manner and appearance in the place where Van Gogh once stayed, lived and painted, which provided him with the initial inspiration for "capturing the real moment of Van Gogh" and conceiving the film Van Gogh (199 1) by painting.

1968 Spring, the most turbulent spring in the 20th century, Maurice Pialat filmed his feature film debut L 'Enfance Nue (1968). The film originated from a children's documentary filmed by Piarat for the French Ministry of Social Assistance. Claude Berri's sister Arlette Langmann read the script and supported Pialat to make it into a feature film. Berry also supported him and showed the script to Truffaut. Truffaut has also heard of this director who is similar to his own experience but older than himself. After reading the script, he liked it very much and decided to support Pialat. Therefore, Berry and Truffaut co-produced, Alice wrote scripts and clips, and Pialat began his film practice of "collecting aesthetics". Pialat was 43 years old when he made his first film.

Naked childhood promoted the cooperation between Pialat and Alice, when she was only 20 years old. She has been doing scripts and editing for Pialat and became the first loyal partner of Pialat tribe. During his 35-year film career, Pialat has directed issbelle huppert (Lulu 1980), Sophie Marceau (policewoman 1985) and other new French actors. He discovered Sandrina in 1983. Two important actor who have worked with Piarat are Cyril Collard and Gerard Depardieu. Cyril kolar, who died young, was a generalist. His novels, music, photography, acting and directing were all discovered by Pialat while filming Our Love. However, kolar's fate has come true. In the film, Pialat gave this generation an inspiring line: "You are just sad!" Kolar paid the price for his dissolute private life. 1992 directed and starred in the autobiographical film Fauvism (1992), and died of AIDS, which became the saddest and most alarming legend in the French film industry. Depardieu is Pialat's favorite actor. He starred in four Pialat films, including The Sun of Satan, which won the Palme d 'Or. Depardieu was with Pialat before he died. Depardieu and Pialat talked about the contradiction between him and his son guillaume depardieu. After listening to this, Piarat only said one sentence: "You shouldn't treat children like this!" These are Pialat's last words. Because of Pialat's personality, he made numerous enemies in the French film industry, including his breakup with Claude Berri. However, in his life and movies, Pialat treated the new generation of filmmakers like his father, and his films became the most precious legacy of this generation.

According to the traditional film concept, "Can't grow old" is a headless and tailless love story. The film does not explain the history of Jean and Katrina, nor does it have a clear ending. Just some "fragments" that happened between them. These fragments can't form a complete narrative, and even the narrative has no continuity. Two people just quarreled and broke up, and the next paragraph is as good as ever. If we analyze the pictures of Hollywood classic feature films, we will find that there are many "invalid pictures" in Pialat's films, and even the one provided in semiotics "le paradigme" can't be found, which looks like the director's original sample (unedited porn). Therefore, Tyson thinks that Pialat is different from the "personalized realistic narrative" pursued by the New Wave (especially Truffaut, claude chabrol and Hou Mai). Pialat established his "personalized style" by rejecting the individualization of narrative and screen language, which is what Akio Toyoda called "uncontrollable form".

Pialat is irritable and moody. In order to defend his film view, he developed many stubborn and even incomprehensible habits. For Piara, defending these rules is equivalent to defending the film and getting as close to the truth as possible. He never gives in. Pialat compared this to being "stuck in the throat of life", so he made countless enemies. This is an incomprehensible person.

Pialat always requires real-life shooting, and it is 100% real-life, that is, the real place, season and time of the day in novels or scripts. When filming "We Can't Grow Old Together", he had to take the crew to the places where he and Colette had been to shoot, streets, bars, parks, including the specific rooms of the hotel, and he even filmed several scenes that took place there in Michelin's home. These conditions are undoubtedly very harsh. Pialat does not use "inanimate light sources". If there is no light, actors will perform in a completely black background (the scene where Donisan meets Satan in Satan's sun is an exception), never add color to the picture, never change the time order through editing (for example, there is no flashback), rarely use soundtracks, and rarely appear except real music in life (usually the soundtrack at the beginning and end, "For Our Love").

For these shooting methods, Pialat has his own explanation: shooting itself is a process of experiencing and establishing reality, and the moment of shooting contains those uncontrollable accidental factors in reality. "The filming is a moment when we try to capture reality. Something must happen in the process of shooting, otherwise the film will fail. "

This makes every shooting look like a battle. Producer, screenwriter, actor, almost anyone can be Pialat's enemy. Fontana said, "Pialat has never experienced a smooth shooting", and people simply can't understand him. When filming We Can't Grow Old Together, jean yanne, the leading actor, disagreed with Pialat's handling of the role of Joan. He didn't want to play a cowardly, sometimes fierce and selfish role, and refused to perform in tears in front of the camera. Within three weeks of shooting, the producers and actors United against Piarat, and even moved the idea of changing directors. In the process of filming "For Our Love", there is a friction between Sandrina Bounell (playing daughter Susan) and Averina Kyle (playing mother Betty). Pialat favors the young Sandrina, which causes Kyle to suddenly slap Sandrina in the face when filming the scene of one of the mother and daughter quarreling. This is not in the script. Kyle became the temporary director of this scene, and then she fell on the bed and cried. Pialat didn't stop, but let the scene continue. Kyle asked to quit filming, but Piarat finally stopped him. However, because of his dissatisfaction with Pialat, Kyle slaps Pialat (who plays the role of his father Roger) in the scene of a makeshift family dinner in Pialat.

In this way, Pialat caught many "moments" in the filming process, which came from numerous quarrels, misunderstandings and hostility, and it was these moments that became the most precious things in Pialat's films. Jean Yana will never believe that he won the 1972 Cannes Film Festival Best Actor Award for such a disgusting role. In For Our Love, the quarrel between Kyle and Sandrina and Pialat's last appearance at the banquet have become recognized classic passages.

Pialat, a filmmaker, never gave up his concern and sympathy for "reality" while insisting on his own aesthetics and personality. He is a stubborn, irritable and uncompromising director, and also a tolerant and frank one-man show. This is his "disaster that existed from the beginning".

On his deathbed, Pialat had many unfinished plans. He became famous late, but it ended long ago. He is a "director without childhood and old age". Times are gradually digesting Pialat's legacy. At the last moment of his life, he could neither write nor speak. Many people who have made enemies with Pialat came to visit him and told him to make up. Even so, none of these people is Pialat's "best friend in life" Claude Berri. After Piarat's death, French film circles paid more and more attention to him, and we can learn more about this lonely director.