Jean-Jacques Beineix

Jean-Jacques Beineix,  8 October 1946 – 13 January 2022) was a French film director whose work is often seen as a prime example of the so-called cinéma du look.

Film critic Ginette Vincendeau has defined the films made by Beineix and others as "youth-oriented films with high production values.... The look of the cinéma du look refers to the films' high investment in non-naturalistic, self-conscious aesthetics, notably intense colours and lighting effects. Their spectacular (studio based) and technically brilliant mise-en-scène is usually put to the service of romantic plots." The cinéma du look also included the films of Luc Besson and Léos Carax. Besson, like Beineix, was much maligned by film critics during the 1980s, while Carax was much admired. In late 2006, Beineix published a first volume of his autobiography, Les Chantiers de la gloire (in French only). The title alluded to the French title of Stanley Kubrick's film Les Sentiers de la gloire (Paths of Glory).

Life and career

From 1964 until 1967, Jean-Jacques Beineix began his career as Jean Becker's assistant director on the popular French TV series Les Saintes chéries [fr]. In 1970, he worked for Claude Berri and, the following year, for Claude Zidi. In 1977, Beineix directed his first short movie, Le Chien de M. Michel, which won first prize at the Trouville Festival. In 1980, Beineix directed his first feature film, Diva, which received four Césars. The film was also entered in the 12th Moscow International Film Festival. His second feature, Moon in the Gutter, was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1983 Cannes Festival. Nominated for three Césars in 1984, it would win one award in the Best Production Design category.

In 1986, Beineix directed Betty Blue (original title: 37°2 le matin), in which Béatrice Dalle and Jean-Hugues Anglade starred. In 1987, it was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, in the same category as that year’s British Academy Film Awards and Golden Globes. It won the 1986 Montréal World Film Festival’s Grand Prix des Amériques and Most Popular Film awards and, in 1987, the Boston Society of Film Critics award for best foreign language film. It also received the Best Poster award, one of nine Césars for which it was nominated. Beineix directed Roselyne et les lions in 1989, IP5: L'île aux pachydermes [fr] in 1992, and Mortel Transfert in 2001. The 1992 Seattle International Film Festival awarded Beineix its Golden Space Needle Award for Best Director for both Betty Blue and IP5: L'île aux pachydermes.

In 1984 Jean-Jacques Beineix created his own production company, Cargo Films, in order to retain his artistic independence. Betty Blue (37°2 le matin) was his first film produced by Cargo, and he became executive producer of all its projects. The company produces feature films and documentaries on a wide variety of themes from science to art, to women’s rights and social problems. Several works have been made in partnership with national scientific organizations such as CNES and CNRS.

In 2008, Jean-Jacques Beineix directed a corporate film for CNRS, 2 infinities (L2i). It was shown at the October 2008 New York Imagine Science film festival.

Beineix died on 13 January 2022, at the age of 75.

Filmography

• 1977 - Le Chien de Monsieur Michel - short movie
• 1981 - Diva - starring Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, Frédéric Andréi
• 1983 - Moon in the Gutter - starring Gérard Depardieu, Nastassja Kinski
• 1986 - Betty Blue - starring Jean-Hugues Anglade, Béatrice Dalle
• 1989 - Roselyne et les lions - starring Isabelle Pasco, Philippe Clévenot
• 1992 - Les Enfants de Roumanie [fr] - documentary
• 1992 - IP5: L'île aux pachydermes [fr] - starring Yves Montand, Olivier Martinez
• 1994 - Otaku : fils de l'empire du virtuel [fr] - documentary
• 1994 - Place Clichy sans complexe [fr] - documentary
• 1997 - Assigné à résidence [fr] - documentary
• 2001 - Mortel transfert - starring Jean-Hugues Anglade, Hélène de Fougerolles