Jean-Claude BernardetOMC (French:[ʒɑ̃klodbɛʁnaʁdɛ]; August 2, 1936 – July 12, 2025) was a Belgian-born Brazilian film theorist, film critic, film director, actor, screenwriter and writer.
Bernardet was born August 2, 1936 in Belgium, to a French family, he spent his childhood in Paris, and came to Brazil with his family at the age of 13, becoming a naturalized Brazilian citizen in 1964. He held a degree from theÉcole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, and a PhD in Arts from the ECA (School of Communications and Arts) atUniversity of São Paulo.[1]
He became interested in cinema from the film club, and began to write reviews in the newspaper OEstado de S. Paulo at the invitation ofPaulo Emílio Salles Gomes. He became a great interlocutor of the group of filmmakers ofCinema Novo, and especially ofGlauber Rocha, who broke with him after the publication ofBrasil em Tempo de Cinema (1967). He was one of the creators of the film course atUniversity of Brasilia, inBrasília, and taught History of Brazilian Cinema at ECA, until he retired in 2004.[2]
In addition to his importance as a theorist, he was also a fictionist, with four published volumes. He participated in several films, as a screenwriter and assistant director, eventually as an actor in small roles.[3] In the 1990s, he directed two medium-length poetic essays:São Paulo, Sinfonia e Cacofonia (1994) andSobre Anos 60 (1999).[4]
In 2007 he was awarded theOrder of Cultural Merit.[5]
He was also the inventor of the children's toy Combina-cor, launched byGrow.[6]
Bernardet died at the Samaritano Hospital inSão Paulo, on July 12, 2025, at the age of 88.[7]