Gérard Brach | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1927-07-23)23 July 1927 Montrouge,Hauts-de-Seine, France |
| Died | 9 September 2006(2006-09-09) (aged 79) Paris, France |
| Occupation(s) | Screenwriter,film director |
| Awards | BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay 1986Jean de Florette |
Gérard Brach (23 July 1927 – 9 September 2006) was a Frenchscreenwriter[1] best known for his collaborations with the film directorsRoman Polanski andJean-Jacques Annaud. He directed two movies:La Maison andLe Bateau sur l'herbe.
Brach was born inMontrouge, Paris, where he grew up in poverty.[2] At the age of 16, he was persuaded by his family to enlist in theCharlemagne division of theWaffen-SS, reportedly witnessing action at theBattle of Königsberg towards the end of World War II.[a][3] After the war, he contracted tuberculosis and ended up spending five years in a sanatorium, undergoing a series of operations that left him with only one lung.[2][4] While a patient at the sanatorium he befriended theDadaist poetBenjamin Péret, who introduced him toAndré Breton, author of theSurrealist Manifesto and a major influence on Brach's early work.[5]
By the late 1950s Brach had entered the film industry, undertaking a number of roles – from acting in minor parts on several films to working as arunner for the producer Pierre Roustang.[4] The poverty he experienced at this time was such that he often let himself be locked in production offices at night so he could have a place to sleep; to kill his hunger, theLos Angeles Times later reported, he "ate baguettes laced with vinegar".[4] From 1959 to 1962 he was employed as a publicist forTwentieth-Century Fox.[2]
In 1959, Brach met Roman Polanski for the first time while working abroad in Poland, and began collaborating with him on a number of different projects.[5] Both men later moved to London, where they wrote the scripts forRepulsion andCul-de-Sac in short order.[b] Brach remained in Britain for several years before returning to France to helmLa Maison (1970), his first attempt at film direction. A year later he directedLe Bateau sur l’herbe, which starredJean-Pierre Cassel and was nominated for the Grand Prix and the Prix du Jury at the1971 Cannes Film Festival. Neither film made much impact at the box office.[2] He had further success, however, with his screenplays, working alongside directors of international renown such as Jean-Jacques Annaud,Michelangelo Antonioni,Andrei Konchalovsky andBertrand Blier.
In later years Brach suffered from intenseagoraphobia, which prevented him from leaving his Paris apartment. His illness, he claimed in an interview, arrived "like a black cloud out of nowhere in the early 1980s", making him "break out in a cold sweat, shake and freeze in panic" as soon as he stepped outside.[4] He received treatment for his affliction, but never managed to defeat it completely.
Brach was married twice. His first wife, with whom he had a son, divorced him in 1955. He met his second wife, Elisabeth, in 1969; they wed in Brach's bedroom eleven years later, as by this time his agoraphobia was too severe for him to marry in public.[4] He died ofheart failure on 9 September 2006 in Paris, aged 79.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
