Claude Berri: Life and Works Claude Berri

Claude Berri: Life and Works

Claude Berri was born in Paris, France in 1934. He was born to Jewish parents and experienced the years of war during his childhood in Europe. It is this experience that is said to have influenced his movie career, with Berri becoming known as a director that captured the real anxieties of people (Buss). His own experiences in his childhood appear to have given him an understanding of human suffering that allowed him to capture it profoundly. Another theme of Berri's was prejudice, with many of his films dealing with the subject. This interest is also likely to come from his childhood and his experience as a Jew during the war years and after.

One thing that stands out in Berri's films is how the sadness of human suffering and prejudice is captured, not only with sadness, but with a sense of reality. Berri shows characters dealing with situations in an honest way and does not focus only on the suffering. Instead, the characters react to their situations in humorous ways. This is one key aspect of Berri's films; the ability to combine drama with comedy, and to add the comedy in a way that does not lessen the very real drama. Watching these films, it seems that only someone that has themselves suffered them could recreate them as Berri has. Another director would be prone to overemphasize the tragedy or add comedy that takes away from the drama. It appears that the struggles of Berri's life have not only influenced the subjects he chose, but also given him the ability to deal with those subjects effectively.

Film Career

While Berri became best known as a director, he began his film career as an actor. Berri's first role was in the 1953 film Le Bons Dieu Sans Confession. For the next ten years, Berri continued his acting career, landing small roles in films including Les Bonnes Femmes, La Verite and Janine. While Berri was considered a good actor, his acting career did not make him a star. Instead, he ventured into the world of directing.

Berri's first effort as director was met with immediate success. He directed a short film titled La Poulet in 1965. This film won the Oscar for Best Live Short and several other awards. With this success in hand, Berri continued his directing career, directing two more short films in 1966.

Berri's first feature length film was titled Le Vieil Homme et L'Enfant and was released in 1968. This film was the first of many with a clear link to Berri's background. The film was a sentimental story about a Jewish boy and his friendship with an anti-Semitic man. Berri's own childhood as a Jewish boy is certain to have influenced this choice in film as well as giving him the ability to turn it into a deep film that stood out as being honest in its protrayol of the boy and the situation.

Berri again chose a film that linked with his own personal background when he directed the 1970 film Le Cinema de Papa. As well as directing the film, Berri also starred in it as himself. The film was a deep and personal exploration of his own life as a teenager.

Berri's directing career continued, as did his interest in directing films with a link to Jewish life in France. These films included the 1976 film La Premiere Fois which focused on the sexual life of the French male as well as showing what Jewish life was like in the 1950's.

In the 1980's Berri's interests in the film industry grew from just directing, to producing. He started his own production company, Renn Films, in 1979 and was producer of various films including Roman Polanski's Tess in 1979. While Berri was now a successful producer, he also continued directing.

As a director, Berri's most successful film is said to be the 1983 film Tchao Pantin. This film was a move away from Berri's own personal background, but it did focus on what he was known best for, presenting meaningful, sentimental stories of human suffering in a realistic way. For his efforts, Berri won various awards including a nomination for Best Director.

Berri had two more directorial successes with the films Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources. Each of these films was an adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's love story set in 20th century France. Both these films were also met with various awards.

In 1993 Berri directed Germinal.

Germinal was an adaptation of the novel of Emile Zola. With Berri's background and directing interests, Berri was a perfect fit to direct the film version of the novel. The film told a story of human suffering, showing the horrific living conditions in a 19th century mining town in France. It was a film that required Berri's ability to depict human suffering in a poignant and honest way, without resorting to being overly sentimental.