His impeccable career, thus honoured by the festival, stands out for being a key piece of the history of cinema, for his close relationship with Buñuel and for his beginning in the world of short film.
The Luis Buñuel Award of the 44th edtion of Huesca International Film Festival will go to French scriptwriter, director and playwright Jean-Claude Carrière, a referent in European auteur cinema and architect of some of the more prominent films in our continent and the USA during last decades. Carrière, winner of two Oscar Awards, will attend the award ceremony in Huesca, so as to receive the prize at a gala which will honour his figure and all his filmography. A recognition to which Carrière himself feels closely linked due to his close relationship with Teruel’s director, with whom he wrote nine scripts, six of which became films.
Jean-Claude has worked with a great number of directors who have marked the history of the seventh art, he has written for Jacques Tati, Jean-Luc Godard, Louis Malle, Milos Forman, Costa Gavras, Andrzej Wajda or Luis García Berlanga. His relationship with Buñuel, lasting over almost 20 years, resulted in titles such as The Diary of a Chambermaid, Belle de jour, That Obscure Object of Desire: works in which he also participated several times as an actor.
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His filmography as screenwriter comprises almost 150 titles where, in addition to those produced with the Aragonese genius, we may find films such as The Tin Drum (1979), The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), Valmont (1989), Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), Goya’s Ghosts (2006), or in 2012 The Artist and the Model by Fernando Trueba, work for which he was nominated to the Goya Awards.
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Among his more than 30 works as an actor, it stands out films like Certified Copy by Abbas Kiarostami, or Buñuel and King’s Solomon’s Table by Carlos Saura, who was also similarly awarded at Huesca Festival two years ago.
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For the festival organization, his beginnings in the field of short film makes the award even more meaningful, ‘it is a privilege to award a master like Jean-Claude, and the fact that he started as a short films director -where he also won his first Oscar- is an additional reason to defend the significance of this format. It is an honour and a benchmark for our festival’, said Garanto. Carrière started in 1961 with the short film Rupture and it was a year later when, together with Pierre Étaix, he won the Oscar for Best Short Film with Heureux anniversaire. His third short film was La pince à ongles, together with another giant of contemporary cinema, Milos Forman. Thanks to this work, they were awarded the Jury Prize at Cannes Festival.
Jean-Claude Carrière, the screen writer of the seventh art.
Jean-Claude Carrière was born on September 19, 1931 in Colombières-sur-Orb, Hérault (France). A Literature and History graduate, he published his first novel at the age of just 24. His beginnings in the world of short film as a director brought him into contact with Luis Buñuel, who was looking for a co-writer for his project The Diary of a Chambermaid; his deep understanding of French provinces was key to their relationship, which extended for more than 20 years resulting in some of the most acclaimed works by Calanda’s director, as well as Teruel genius’ memoirs, under the title My Last Sight.
Carrière’s Renaissance spirit led him to produce countless works, stage adaptations, essays and songs for Boris Vian, Juliette Gréco or Brigitte Bardot, besides this, he was Peter Brook’s permanent playwright in the last 35 years. With a solid and extensive career behind him, the Government of Spain granted him the Orden de las Artes y las Letras in 2011, thus joining his name with other giants such as Oscar Niemeyer, Placido Domingo or Richard Serra. Hollywood Academy honoured him again in 2014 with an Honorary Oscar for his whole trajectory, placing him as one the chief exponents of French surrealism.
PHOTO CREDITS: Pascal Gros
