Encyclopedia of French Film Directors

142 • BRABANT, CHARLES
BRABANT, CHARLES (July 6, 1920, Paris, France–
November 28, 2006, Paris, France)
A fi lm buff from his childhood, he sometimes watched
fi ve movies in a single day. From 1943 to 1945, he was
a political deportee in Sachenhausen. After World
War II, while shooting amateur fi lms, he made a living
working as a central heating technician. Thanks to the
fi nancial help of Marius Franay, the founder of LTC
Cinematographical Laboratories, he directed his fi rst
short before creating his own production company,
Artès Films. He also wrote screenplays for other directors
(1948 La Ville et ses Chansons, short; 1958 Les
Aventuriers du Mékong / USA: Adventures in Indochina,
Jean Bastia; 1980 Les Liaisons dangereuses, TV, Claude
Barma, shot in 1978–1979) and produced La Vie de
Famille (Jacques Doillon, 1985).
Filmography
1949 Les Feuilles mortes (short; also screenwriter)
1952 La P . . . respectueuse / UK and USA: The Respectful
Prostitute (also producer, co-director
with Marcello Pagliero)
1954 Zoé (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter, codialogist,
producer)
1956 Les Possédées / L’isola delle donne sole / L’isola
delle capre / USA: Passionate Summer (also coscreenwriter,
co-adapter; France / Italy)
1958 Le Piège / La trappola si chiude / USA: No Escape
(also co-screenwriter, adapter; France / Italy)
1959 Les Naufrageurs (also co-adapter)
1962 Carillons sans Joie / Vento caldo di battaglia (also
original novel, co-adapter, co-dialogist; France
/ Italy)
Television Filmography
1963 Les Prisons (5 26' documentary: Les Prisons
courtes Peines; Les Prisons longues Peines; Les
Prisons, l’Homme et la Réforme / three-part
episode)
1964 La Longue Etape (documentary)
Les Hôpitaux (documentary)
L’Alcoolisme (documentary)
1965 Les Prisons (documentary; episode “Au-delà
des Barreaux”)
1966 L’Homme et sa Musique: Erik Satie (documentary)
1968 Les Vieux (2 90' documentary)
1969 Les Chorégies de Vaison-la-Romain (2 52'
documentary)
1970 Antonio Vivaldi (documentary)
1971 La Maison des Chingi (documentary)
1972 Jean Sébastien Bach (documentary)
Le Râmâyana (4 30' documentary)
1973 La Fête ou l’Invention de la Liberté (documentary)
1974 Les Chemins de l’Imaginaire (documentary)
1976 Zouc ou Le Paradoxe du Comédien (documentary)
1977 Rimbaud, le Voleur de Feu (documentary)
1981 Le Voyage du Hollandais (also screenwriter)
1982 La Sorcière (also screenwriter)
1989 Les Nuits révolutionnaires (7 60')
BRACH, GÉRARD (July 23, 1927, Montrouge,
Hauts-de-Seine, France–September 9, 2006, Paris,
France)
He dropped out of school in the early 1940s intending
to dedicate himself to drawing and painting.
At age eighteen, he suffered from tuberculosis and
spent fi ve years in a sanitarium where he read a lot
and discovered his interest for surrealism. A production
assistant in the 1950s and then a press attaché
for Twentieth Century Fox (1959–1962), he befriended
Roman Polanski and made his screenwriting
debut co-authoring with the Polish director the
segment “La Rivière de Diamants” of Les plus belles
Escroqueries du Monde in 1963. Until his death in
2006, he co-wrote almost sixty movies. He regularly
collaborated with Roman Polanski (1965 Repulsion,
UK; 1966 Cul-de-Sac, UK; 1967 Dance of the Vampires
/ USA: The Fearless Vampire Killers / The Fearless
Vampire Killers, or: Pardon Me, but Your Teeth Are in My
Neck, UK / US; 1972 What? / Che? / Quoi? / Was? /
USA: Diary of Forbidden Dreams, Italy / France / West
Germany; 1976 Le Locataire / The Tenant, France /
USA; 1979 Tess, France / UK; 1986 Pirates, France /
Tunisia; 1988 Frantic, USA / France; 1992 Bitter Moon
/ Lunes de Fiel, France / UK), Claude Berri (1967 Le
Vieil Homme et l’Enfant / UK: The Old Man and the Boy
/ USA: The Two of Us; 1986 Jean de Florette; Manon
des Sources / Manon delle sorgenti / USA: Manon of the
Spring, France / Italy), and Jean-Jacques Annaud (1981
La Guerre du Feu / Quest for Fire, Canada / France /
USA; 1986 Le Nom de la Rose / Der Name der Rose / Il
nome della rosa / USA: The Name of the Rose, France /
West Germany / Italy; 1988 L’Ours / The Bear, France
/ USA; 1992 L’Amant the Lover, France / UK / Vietnam;