(Paris) French filmmaker Michel Deville, who filmed Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve and Michel Piccoli, died on February 16 at the age of 91 and was buried on Monday.
“We are only announcing it today, because we wanted to collect ourselves in the intimacy of the family and Michel hated the ceremonies…”, declared his wife and collaborator Rosalinde Deville.
The director of Peril in the housedied “of old age” according to his wife, was “buried in the cemetery of Boulogne-Billancourt, his city”, near Paris.
Author of around thirty feature films, he received two Césars for File 51 (1979, best screenplay) and for Peril in the house (1986, best director).
Almost all of his films were based on literary works that he adapted, such as The readerwith Miou-Miou, adapted from the novel by Raymond Jean, File 51 according to Gilles Perrault’s book or Sachs diseasewith Albert Dupontel, adapted from the novel by Martin Winckler.
Born in April 1931, Michel Deville had learned the profession of filmmaker for about ten years, with his mentor Henri Decoin. He had been successful with Benjamin or the memoirs of a virgin (1967), interpreted by Michèle Morgan, Michel Piccoli and Pierre Clémenti. In 1970, he directed Brigitte Bardot in comedy, The bear and the dollone of the last films of the star.