Patrice Chéreau | |
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.jpg) Chéreau in 2009 | |
| Born | (1944-11-02)2 November 1944 Lézigné, France |
| Died | 7 October 2013(2013-10-07) (aged 68) Clichy, France |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1966–2013 |
| Awards |
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Patrice Chéreau (/ʃəˈroʊ/;French:[patʁisʃeʁo]; 2 November 1944 – 7 October 2013) was a French opera and theatre director, filmmaker, actor and producer. In France he is best known for his work for the theatre, internationally for his filmsLa Reine Margot andIntimacy, and for his staging of theJahrhundertring, the centenaryRing cycle at theBayreuth Festival in 1976. Winner of almost twenty movie awards, including theCannes Jury Prize and theGolden Berlin Bear, Chéreau served as president of the jury at the 2003 Cannes festival.
From 1966, he was artistic director of thePublic-Theatre in the Parisian suburb ofSartrouville, where in his team were stage designerRichard Peduzzi, costume designerJacques Schmidt and lighting designerAndré Diot, with whom he collaborated in many later productions. From 1982, he was director of "his own stage" at theThéâtre Nanterre-Amandiers atNanterre where he staged plays byJean Racine,Marivaux andShakespeare as well as works byJean Genet,Heiner Müller andBernard-Marie Koltès.
He accepted selected opera productions, such as: the first performance of the three-act version ofAlban Berg'sLulu, completed byFriedrich Cerha, at theParis Opera in 1979; Berg'sWozzeck at theStaatsoper Berlin in 1994; Wagner'sTristan und Isolde atLa Scala in 2007; Janáček'sFrom the House of the Dead, shown at several festivals and theMetropolitan Opera; and, as his last staging,Elektra byRichard Strauss, first performed at theAix-en-Provence Festival in July 2013. He was awarded theEurope Theatre Prize in 2008.
Chéreau was born inLézigné, Maine-et-Loire, on 2 November 1944. His father, Jean-Baptiste Chéreau, was a painter, and his mother, Marguerite Pelicier, was a graphic designer. He attended school in Paris. Early on he was taken to theLouvre and became interested in the arts, cinema, theatre and music. At age 12, he designed stage sets for plays.[1] He became well known to Parisian critics as director, actor, and stage manager of his high-school theatre (lycée Louis-le-Grand). At 15, he was enthusiastically celebrated as a theatre prodigy. In 1964, at the age of 19, he began directing for the professional theatre.[2] While studying at theSorbonne, he professionally stagedVictor Hugo'sL'Intervention, and subsequently dropped out of the university.[3]
In 1966, Chéreau was appointed artistic director of thePublic-Theatre in the Parisian suburb ofSartrouville.[4][5]With "idealism and inventiveness", he made the theatre a "municipal commodity", presenting not only theatre but also "cinema, concerts, poetry productions, lectures and debates about everything from politics to pot".[1] His theatrical team included costume designerJacques Schmidt, stage designerRichard Peduzzi and lighting designerAndré Diot, with all of whom he collaborated in many later productions.[1]
In 1968, he directedThe Soldiers byJakob Michael Reinhold Lenz at theFestival of Youth Theatre inNancy.[3] In 1969, he staged his first opera production,Rossini'sL'italiana in Algeri for theSpoleto Festival, again with his Sartrouville team.[1] The following year he established a close artistic relationship with the leadership of thePiccolo Teatro in Milan,Paolo Grassi andGiorgio Strehler.[3] There, he stagedPablo Neruda's "revolutionary oratorio"The Splendour and Death of Joaquin Murieta.[1] In 1970, he directed Shakespeare'sRichard II at theThéâtre de France.[3] His first staging for theParis Opera was in 1974Offenbach'sLes contes d'Hoffmann.[6][7] He showed Hoffmann, sung byNicolai Gedda, as a "sensitive poet for whom love is beyond reach, ... a drunken loser".[3] In 1975, he worked in Germany for the first time directingEdward Bond'sLear,[3] set in an "industrial landscape strewn with piles of slag, with Lear as aBaron Krupp in evening dress and top hat".[1] He commented on the "macabre" production: "Just as some people feed on hope, I feed on despair. For me it is a spur to action."[3] Also in 1975, hisdirectorial debut film was the thrillerLa Chair de l'orchidée, based onJames Hadley Chase's 1948 novelThe Flesh of the Orchid, sequel toNo Orchids for Miss Blandish (1939). The film assembled a starry cast includingEdwige Feuillère,Simone Signoret,Alida Valli andCharlotte Rampling[5] "in the [Miss Blandish] role giving a performance of extraordinary intensity. It was an almost operatic version of the misunderstood1948 British film."[1]
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In 1976, Chéreau stagedWagner'sDer Ring des Nibelungen at theBayreuth Festival[8] to celebrate the festival's centenary, termed theJahrhundertring.[2] The production, celebrating 100 years after Wagner's work had been performed for the first time as a cycle at the first Bayreuth Festival, became known as theJahrhundertring (Centenary Ring). Chéreau collaborated with conductorPierre Boulez,[8] who had recommended him to the festival direction. The French team revolutionised the understanding of Wagner in Germany, as music criticEleonore Büning wrote in her obituary in theFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.[9] Chéreau set the scene in the time of the composition, with a critical view of the time's capitalism, industrialism and spiritual background. As Büning and others pointed out, the staging left a standard for productions of theRing Cycle to follow.[9][10] Gerhard R. Koch mentioned in his obituary that the unity of direction, scene and light was new for Bayreuth and suggested a critical view on capitalism heading towardsfascism.[7]
In 1977, whenheldentenorRené Kollo had broken his leg, Chereau acted the role ofSiegfried on stage while Kollo sang from the wings.[11]
The Ring production, filmed for television in 1980,[12] initially provoked controversy,[13] but was celebrated after its final performance in 1980 with a 45-minute standing ovation.[2][11] Chéreau dislikedgrand opera, but said: "After Bayreuth, I felt the need to work on a theatrical project of some breadth ... I have never put on little things. I am interested only in spectacles that rise above themselves". He first consideredGoethe'sFaust but then directed in 1981Henrik Ibsen'sPeer Gynt for Villeurbane and Paris, aiming at "an incandescence of theatrical experience, a global spectacle".[1]
Chéreau directed the first performance of the three-act version ofAlban Berg'sLulu, completed byFriedrich Cerha, at theParis Opera on 24 February 1979, again conducted by Boulez and with sets by Peduzzi, withTeresa Stratas singing the title role.[14] The scene is set in the time of the composition, around 1930. Koch observes frequent topics of hunt, and love colder than death (Verfolger und Verfolgte, und Liebe ... kälter als der Tod).[7] Dr. Schön, a powerful newspaper manager, is reminiscent of supporters of Hitler.[7]
From 1982, Chéreau was director of "his own stage" at theThéâtre Nanterre-Amandiers atNanterre.[1] In 1981 already he staged there Ibsen'sPeer Gynt. He was the first to show several plays byBernard-Marie Koltès, includingCombat de nègre et de chiens [fr] andQuai Ouest [fr] (1985),Dans la solitude des champs de coton [fr] (1986) andLe Retour au désert [fr] (1988). He directed Marivaux'La Fausse suivante in 1985 and Shakespeare'sHamlet in 1989, also works byJean Genet,Heiner Müller andJean Racine.[6] He staged Mozart'sLucio Silla in 1984, for Amandiers, but also forLa Monnaie andLa Scala.[citation needed]
At theOdéon he staged in 1992Le Temps et la Chambre byBotho Strauss. He directedDans la solitude des champs de coton again in 1995, shown atIvry, theWiener Festwochen and theBrooklyn Academy of Music.[citation needed] He staged in 2011Jon Fosse'sJe suis le vent in an English version,I Am the Wind, bySimon Stephens at theYoung Vic Theatre, withTom Brooke andJack Laskey.[citation needed]
In 1983, Chéreau directed the filmThe Wounded Man (L'Homme Blessé), a more personal project for him. He and his co-writer,Hervé Guibert, worked for six years on the scenario, which tells of a love affair between an older man involved in prostitution and a teenage boy, a dark view in the context ofHIV/AIDS.[5] His 1994 film wasLa Reine Margot, based on the 1845historical novel of the same name byAlexandre Dumas. It won theJury Prize andBest Actress Award (Virna Lisi) atCannes, as well as fiveCésar Awards. Set in the 16th century, depicting the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in France, it shows battles and theSt Bartholomew's day massacre. A scene of the queen with the head of her lover is reminiscent of the operaSalome, uniting cult and obsession ("Einheit von Kult und Obsession"), as Koch remarks.[7] The film was Chéreau's longest, most expensive production, and his greatest financial success.[5] "[I]t was erotic and violent, and offers poured in from Hollywood," but, he said, "I was always being offered films based in theRenaissance and involving a massacre. I even had an offer from the UK to do a film aboutGuy Fawkes."[1] He refused similar offers: "It's useless to repeat something you already did."[3] In 1992, in a rare acting role, he appeared asGeneral Montcalm inMichael Mann'sThe Last of the Mohicans.[citation needed]
Chéreau's staging of Berg'sWozzeck was shown from 1993 to 1999 at theThéâtre du Châtelet and theStaatsoper Berlin, conducted byDaniel Barenboim, withFranz Grundheber in the title role andWaltraud Meier as Marie. It was filmed in 1994. A review notes the "presentation of even the smallest roles as deeply-considered characters".[12] His staging of Mozart'sDon Giovanni was shown from 1994 to 1996 at theSalzburg Festival.[citation needed]
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In 1998, he directed the filmThose Who Love Me Can Take the Train, a "melodramatic, sentimental and emptily wordy ... about the interplay of assorted characters on their way to the funeral of a misanthropic, bisexual minor painter (Jean-Louis Trintignant)."[5] The final scene reflects the cemetery of Limoges to the music of Mahler'sTenth Symphony.[7]
Chéreau's only English-language film,Intimacy (2001), was based on short stories byHanif Kureishi[5] (who also wrote theeponymous novel in 1998). The cast includesKerry Fox,Mark Rylance,Timothy Spall andMarianne Faithfull. The film deals with "the possessiveness of a musician from London who regularly meets a woman for sexual encounters".[3] It "was a tale of sexual obsession which sparked a debate about unsimulated sex on screen.[1] But, Chéreau said, 'It is not like a porno film, not at all erotic sometimes, but it is beautiful because it is life.'"[1]
In 2003, he directedHis Brother (Son frère), centred "on the relationship between two estranged brothers, one gay, the other straight. They come together when the latter suffers from a potentially fatal blood disease. The hospital processes are shot unflinchingly, without sentimentality, which makes this meditation on mortality even more moving."[5] Koch notes the similarity of a scene when the moribund is shaved for a last futile surgery he lies on a table similar to Mantegna'sDead Christ.[7] In 2003 Chéreau served at Cannes as president of the jury.[3]
His staging of Mozart'sCosì fan tutte was shown in 2005 and 2006 inAix-en-Provence, theOpéra National de Paris and theWiener Festwochen. In 2007, he staged Wagner'sTristan und Isolde atLa Scala, conducted byDaniel Barenboim. He had stayed away from the opera because he regarded it as "predominantly a musical rather than a theatrical work", but his "sombre, subtle direction – withWaltraud Meier an acutely vulnerable Isolde – was intensely moving".[11]
He directed Leoš Janáček'sFrom the House of the Dead, again conducted by Boulez, first shown at theVienna Festival in 2007, and later at theHolland Festival, theAix-en-Provence Festival, theMetropolitan Opera (his debut there in 2009)[1] and La Scala.[11] Chéreau's last film wasPersécution (2009), "a gloomy, episodic film"[5] about a man who is "haunted by a love-hate relationship with his girlfriend".[3] His last production wasElektra byRichard Strauss, conducted byEsa-Pekka Salonen, shown at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in July 2013[15][16] and scheduled for the MET's 2015–16 season.[1] A review noted: "The clichés of Fascist brutality and expressionist exaggeration are astutely avoided: this is a situation that involves human beings, not caricatures, in a visually neutral environment of bare walls, windows and doors (designed by Richard Peduzzi) which is also blackly portentous in atmosphere."[17]
Chéreau was in a long-term relationship with his lover and favorite actorPascal Greggory.[3][18] He was not interested in gay topics, saying: "I never wanted to specialise in gay stories, and gay newspapers have criticised me for that. Everywhere love stories are exactly the same. The game of desire, and how you live with desire, are the same."[1] Chéreau died in Paris on 7 October 2013 from lung cancer. He was 68 years old.[2]
In 2009, Chéreau signed a petition in support of directorRoman Polanski, who had been detained while traveling to a film festival in relation to his 1977sexual abuse charges, which the petition argued would undermine the tradition of film festivals as a place for works to be shown "freely and safely", and that arresting filmmakers traveling to neutral countries could open the door "for actions of which no-one can know the effects."[19][20]
Chéreau was portrayed byLouis Garrel in the 2022 French-Italian filmForever Young.[21]
Chéreau was awarded theEurope Theatre Prize in 2008, in the Edition XII of the prize. The "Reason for award" noted:
A natural-born artist with a clear calling, Patrice Chéreau is one of those rare examples of a person who manages to succeed in all the expressive arts. ... Patrice Chéreau is an actor himself with the indispensable support of a team of creative collaborators, including the great set designer Richard Peduzzi, costume designer Jacques Schmidt and lighting designer André Diot. Drawn through his analysis of Brecht towards a correct naturalism, Chéreau has discovered and revived a number of little known texts, not least thanks to the many languages he has mastered. His extraordinary critical interpretation of Marivaux broke through the playwright's sunny surface to reveal him as a forward-looking, harsh social critic. ...Meanwhile, Chéreau shifted from theatre to opera, ... a scandalous reinterpretation of Wagner's Ring at Bayreuth ... He reached the height of his career during his many years at the Théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre, where he developed a new model of expression, discovered and launched one of the great dramatists of our time, Bernard Marie Koltès, whose major works he directed, including Combat de nègre et de chiens and Solitude des champs de coton, as well as Shakespeare, Peer Gynt, Heiner Müller, and the historic revival of Les paravents by Genet. Chéreau eventually turned to cinema, which he found more expressive of the truth of life that he so values.[22]
(for his company "Azor Films")
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