Encyclopedia of French Film Directors

874 • ROBERT, YVES
Temps d’une République: Un Soir d’Hiver, Place de la Concorde,
Roger Pigaut). He also worked as a still photographer
(1979 Martin et Léa, Alain Cavalier; La Drôlesse
/ USA: The Hussy, also production designer, Jacques
Doillon; 1981 Viens chez moi, j’habite chez une Copine,
Patrice Leconte; 1982 Family Rock, José Pinheiro; Vive
les Femmes!, Claude Confortès) and second assistant
director (1984 Le Jumeau, Yves Robert).
Filmography
1982 Le Tigre du Jardin des Plantes (short)
1984 Lettre à Juliette (short)
1987 La Bouddha Affaire (short)
1990 A Mots découverts (short)
1996 Sortez des Rangs (also co-screenwriter)
Television Filmography
1998 Les Marmottes (TV series)
Maternité (TV series)
Les Cordier, Juge et Flic (episode “Le Deuxième
Fils”)
2001 Les Cordier, Juge et Flic (episode “Menace sur
la Ville”)
2004 Tout pour être heureux
ROBERT, YVES (June 19, 1920, Saumur, Maine-et-
Loire, France–May 10, 2002, Paris, France)
He started working at age thirteen as an apprentice
pastry cook, messenger, unskilled road worker,
and typographer. In 1942, he joined the Grenier-
Hussenot theatrical company in Lyon and then
attended Jean-Marie Conty’s acting class in Paris.
While directing several shows in the famous Parisian
cabaret that he managed from 1948 to 1952, La
Rose Rouge, he got his fi rst role in a fi lm (a soccer
player in Les Dieux du Dimanche, René Lucot) in
1948. A gifted comedy director since 1953, he never
stopped acting and played mostly supporting roles
in about seventy fi lms. He probably gave his best
acting performance as Patrick Dewaere’s father in
Claude Sautet’s Un Mauvais Fils / UK and USA: A Bad
Son in 1980. Autobiography: 1996 Un Homme de Joie:
Dialogue avec Jérôme Tonnerre (Flammarion). In 1956,
he had married actress Danièle Delorme (b. 1926),
with whom he co-founded a production company,
Les Films de la Guéville, in 1961. Their fi rst production,
La Guerre des Boutons / USA: War of the Buttons,
received the Jean Vigo Prize. In the 1970s and early
1980s, Les Films de la Guéville released in France all
the Monthy Python movies.
Filmography
1951 Les Bonnes Manières (short)
Fernand cherche du Boulot (short)
1954 Les Hommes ne pensent qu’à ça (also actor)
1958 Ni vu, ni connu
1959 Signé Arsène Lupin / Il ritorno di Arsenio Lupin /
US TV: Signed: Arsene Lupin (also actor; France
/ Italy)
1961 La Famille Fenouillard (also actor)
1962 La Guerre des Boutons / USA: War of Buttons
(also co-producer)
1963 Bébert et l’Omnibus / UK and USA: Bebert and
the Train / The Holy Terror (also producer)
1965 Les Copains (also producer)
1966 Monnaie de Singe / I sette falsari / La viuda soltera
/ UK: Monkey Money (also co-screenwriter, coadapter,
co-producer; France / Italy)
1968 Alexandre le Bienheureux / UK: Very Happy
Alexander / USA: Alexander (also original story,
co-screenwriter, co-adapter, dialogist, coproducer)
1969 Clérambard (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter,
dialogist, co-producer)
1972 Le Grand Blond avec une Chaussure noire / UK:
Follow That Guy with the One Black Shoe / USA:
The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (also
co-screenwriter, co-producer, actor)
1973 Salut l’Artiste / L’idolo della città / UK: Hail the
Artist / USA: The Bit Player (also co-screenwriter,
co-producer, actor; France / Italy)
1974 Le Retour du grand Blond / USA: The Return of
the Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (also
co-screenwriter, actor, co-producer)
1976 Un Eléphant ça trompe énormément / UK:
Pardon Mon Affaire / USA: An Elephant Can Be
Extremely Deceptive (also co-screenwriter, coproducer)
1977 Nous irons tous au Paradis / UK: Pardon Mon
Affaire, Too! / USA: We Will All Meet in Paradise
(also co-screenwriter, co-producer)
1979 Courage fuyons (also co-screenwriter, coproducer)
1984 Le Jumeau (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter,
co-dialogist, co-producer, uncredited actor)
1986 Les Petites Magiciennes (short; co-director
with Vincent Mercier; also co-screenwriter;
France / Switzerland)
1990 La Gloire de mon Père / UK and USA: My Father’s
Glory (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter,
co-producer)