Encyclopedia of French Film Directors

784 • OTZENBERGER, CHRISTOPHE
1998 Elle a l’Âge de ma Fille
1999 Un Bonheur si fragile
2000 Julien l’Apprenti (2 90'; also co-screenwriter,
co-dialogist)
2002 L’Agence Coup de Coeur (pilot only)
2003 Un Eté amoureux
De Soie et de Cendre (2 100')
2007 Le Sanglot des Anges (4 90'; also co-screenwriter,
co-dialogist)
La Promeneuse des Oiseaux (also co-screenwriter,
co-adapter, co-dialogist; France / Switzerland)
OTZENBERGER, CHRISTOPHE (July 2, 1961,
Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, Val-de-Marne, France–)
Having trained at the Fémis, he started as an actor
in 1981 (Mon Meilleur Noël, episode “La Gloire de
Samba”) and played in a few movies (1984 Liste noire,
Alain Bonnot; 1985 Moi vouloir toi, Patrick Dewolf;
1986 Le Complexe du Kangourou) before directing his
fi rst short in 1986. He then produced documentaries.
Unfortunately, his production company, Méli-Mélo,
went bankrupt in 1992.
Filmography
1986 Toi + moi = 3 (medium-length)
1995 La Conquête de Clichy (documentary; also cinematographer;
shot in 1993)
1996 Une Journée chez ma Tante (documentary)
1999 Fragments sur la Misère (documentary; also
cinematographer)
2001 Le Vigneron français (also screenwriter, actor;
included in the collective feature Pas
d’Histoires!)
2006 Itinéraires (also co-screenwriter)
Television Filmography
2002 Autrement (also screenwriter, cinematographer)
OUAHAB, DJAMEL (October 10, 1968, Asnières,
Hauts-de-Seine, France–)
He started as a stage actor and notably performed
Puck in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
(1990) and Tom in Tennessee Williams’s The Glass
Menagerie (1991). He also played small parts in a few
fi lms (2001 L’Affaire Marcorelle, Serge Le Péron; 2003
Un Homme, un Vrai, Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu;
2005 J’ai vu tuer Ben Barka, Serge Le Péron and Saïd
Smihi, France / Morocco / Spain). In 1992, he failed the
National Conservatory of Theatre competitive examination
and began to write his fi rst motion picture,
which was shot in 1992–1998. After briefl y working
as an assistant casting director (1997 Le Cinquième
Elément / UK and USA: The Fifth Element, Luc Besson;
1998 Taxi, Luc Besson), he directed some fi lms (2000
The Dancer, Fred Garson; 2005 Tu vas rire mais je te
quitte, Philippe Harel; Wah Wah, Richard E. Grant, UK
/ France / South Africa).
Filmography
1999 Cour interdite (also screenwriter, dialogist, actor;
shot in 1992–1998)
OURY, GÉRARD (Max-Gérard Houry Tannenbaum
/ April 29, 1919, Paris, France–July 19, 2006, Saint-
Tropez, Var, France)
The son of a classical violinist father and a journalist
mother who had many artist friends (painter Foujita
drew her portrait), he was educated at Janson
de Sailly High School. He wanted to be a journalist
fi rst but soon switched to acting. At age seventeen,
he enrolled in the Cours Simon and two years later
in the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts.
He made his debut at the Comédie-Française in
Britannicus. During the occupation of France, he fl ed
the country and settled in Geneva. Back in his native
country after the liberation, he landed a small
part in Jacques Becker’s Antoine et Antoinette / UK
and USA: Antoine and Antoinette (1947). From 1947
to 1963, he played supporting roles in more than
twenty pictures. He notably performed Napoléon
Bonaparte twice in fi lms (1953 Sea Devils, Raoul
Walsh, USA; 1954 L’amante di Paride / UK: The Face
That Launched a Thousand Ships / USA: Love of the
Three Queens, Marc Allégret, Italy) and co-starred
with Yul Brynner and Ingrid Bergman in Anatole
Litvak’s The Journey (USA, 1959) and with Paul Newman
and Edward G. Robinson in Mark Robson’s The
Prize (USA, 1963). A fi lm director since 1959, he
shot the greatest box offi ce hits of French cinema.
After authoring two autobiographical books (1988
Mémoire d’Eléphant, Olivier Orban; 2001 Ma Grande
Vadrouille, Plon), he made his last fi lm appearance
in Là-haut, un Roi au Dessus des Nuages / Là-haut
(Pierre Schoendoerffer, 2003, shot in 2001). In 1977,
he directed onstage the only play he wrote (Arrête
ton Cinéma). His daughter, Danièle Thompson, is a
screenwriter and fi lm director.