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François Weyergans | |
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| Born | (1941-08-02)2 August 1941 |
| Died | 27 May 2019(2019-05-27) (aged 77) |
| Nationality | Belgian |
| Occupation(s) | Writer Film director |
| Known for | Member of theAcadémie française |
François Weyergans (French:[fʁɑ̃swavɛjɛʁɡɑ̃s];[1] 2 August 1941 – 27 May 2019)[2] was a Belgian writer and director.[3] His father,Franz Weyergans, was a Belgian and also a writer, while his mother was fromAvignon in France. François Weyergans was elected to theAcadémie française on 26 March 2009, taking the 32nd seat which became vacant with the death ofAlain Robbe-Grillet in 2008.[4][5]
He started film studies at theIDHEC (Hautes Études Cinématographiques), where he came to love the films ofRobert Bresson andJean-Luc Godard, among others. He soon began to write forCahiers du cinéma and directed his first film in 1961, onMaurice Béjart, which led to his expulsion from the school as students were banned from making professional films.
After having been through somepsychoanalysis, he published a satirical account of his treatment in a novel calledLe Pitre (1971), which attracted some critical notice and won theRoger Nimier Prize. His second novel in 1981 wasMacaire le Copte. This won thePrix Rossel in his native Belgium, as well as thePrix des Deux Magots in France. From then on, Weyergans devoted himself entirely to writing, spending whole nights working from 11 p.m. until noon. His subsequent works—mostly of an ironic autobiographical nature—also won literary prizes, including the "Prix Méridien des quatre jurys" in 1983 forLe radeau de la Méduse and thePrix Renaudot in 1992 forLa démence du boxeur. Most recently, hisTrois jours chez ma mère awarded him thePrix Goncourt in 2005. In this, he satirises his own famous difficulties in delivering a promised manuscript in time. In the process he creates a "Russian doll" type structure where he (Weyergans) writes as a writer,Weyergraf, who finds all sorts of distractions or reasons to avoid writing a book calledTrois jours chez ma mère. He does this largely by inventing an author calledGraffenberg, who in turn invents another author,Weyerstein, who sketches out a possible structure—but he keeps getting waylaid by humorous meditations on his own life, love (or just encounters), family, films and multiple enthusiasms and interests.
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