›› Le Héros de la Famille

Claude Brasseur, French actor
Le Héros de la Famille

Actor Claude Brasseur is a third generation actor: his parents Pierre Brasseur and Odette Joyeux were also renowned thespians, and they formed the young Claude.
Claude Brasseur attended the Parisian acting conservatory and played roles in the theater from his 1954 debut in Marcel Pagnol’s Judas and Bon appétit messieurs (Bon Appetit, Sirs) by Elvire Popesco. He then gained a foothold in the film business with a small role in Rencontre à Paris ( Meeting in Paris ) by Georges Lampin (1956), followed the same year by Le Pays d’où je viens (The Country I Come From), directed by Marcel Carné.
After three years of military service, he worked with Jean Gabin in Rue des prairies (Rue de Paris) (Denys de la Patellière, 1959), and with his father in the fantastic Georges Franju’s masterpiece Les Yeux sans visage (Eyes Without a Face) (1960). But he really gained popular recognition in TV roles such as Rouletabille in Le Mystère de la chambre jaune (Mystery of the Yellow Room) (1965), and Vidocq in Les Nouvelles aventures de Vidocq (The New Adventures of Vidoq) (1967). At the same time, he worked with talented young directors like Jean-Luc Godard (Bande à part) (Band of Outsiders) (1964), Costa-Gavras (Un homme de trop) (Shock Troops) (1967), François Truffaut (Une belle fille comme moi) (Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me) (1972).
He then appeared in two thrillers, Les Seins de glace (Icy Flesh) (1974) and L'Agression (Act of Aggression) (1975), followed by two “buddy movies” that would pave the way for his subsequent career: Yves Robert’s Un éléphant, ça trompe énormément (An Elephant Can Be Extremely Deceptive) (1976), which garnered him a César (France’s Oscar) for Best Supporting Actor, and Nous irons tous au paradis (We Will All Meet in Paradise) (1977). His growing popularity was strengthened by the success of La Guerre des polices ( The Police War ), which earned him another César, for Best Actor.
With the movies La Boum (The Party) (1980) and La Boum 2 (The Party 2) (1982), directed by Claude Pinoteau, in which he plays the nice father of Vicky (Sophie Marceau), landing an unexpected success and a lively response in all of Europe, becoming the “perfect father” for a whole generation.
In 1982, at the top of his career, Claude Brasseur moved easily from embodying Guy de Maupassant, to incarnating “average” guys: a mourning father rejecting self-defense in Légitime violence (Legitimate Violence), a straight police officer in La Crime (The Crime), a loser and gambler in Taxi Boy. In real life, he also raced regularly in the Paris-Dakar Rally with famous driver Jackie Icx.
In 1986, Brasseur and Marceau played together again; this time not as father and daughter, though, but as lovers with passionate scenes in Descente aux enfers (Descent Into Hell).
In the 1990’s and 2000’s, Claude Brasseur has lightened his schedule, often making key brief appearances in films, as in Le Bal des casse-pieds (Dance of the Foot Breakers) (Yves Robert, 1992), Un, deux, trois, soleil (One, Two, Three, Sun) (Bertrand Blier, 1993), or Chouchou (Little Cutie) (2003). Luckily for us, his version of “tapering” his involvement with cinema over the past few years has included the following: he was nominated for a César as Best Actor for his role as Fouché in Edouard Molinaro’s Le Souper (The Supper) (1992), and he continues to incarnate impressive characters such as a communist spy in L'Orchestre rouge (The Red Orchestra) (1989), a lost fifty-something in Sale comme un ange (Dirty Like an Angel) (1990), a diplomatic police officer in Fait d'hiver (1998), or the authoritarian prison guard in La Taule (1999). In 2004, he once again meets his stage partner Jacques Villeret onscreen in Le Dîner de cons (The Dinner Game ); he also appeared in the drama Malabar Princess, and has already gathered notice for recent supporting roles in popular comedies: L'Amour aux trousses (a play on the French title of Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, which is known as La Mort aux trousses in France), Fauteuils d'orchestre (Avenue Montaigne) and Camping.
His son Alexandre has continued the family tradition by becoming an actor, too.

›› L'Audition

Luc Picard, French Canadian Director
L'Audition

Luc Picard was born September 24, 1961. He studied at the Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Montreal from 1985 to 1988.
Once having completed his studies in 1988, he took on the leading role in the plays Singer, directed by Claude Poissant, and Balzac disignotis, directed by Téo Spychalski. In 1990 he took on the leading role in the play Les lettres de la religieuse portugaise directed by Denis Arcand. Picard has held roles in almost all theatrical scenes in Montreal. He has played in more than 20 productions, the most recent being Juste la fin du monde directed by Pierre Bernard and Serge Denoncourt, Lorenzaccio directed by Claude Poissant, Un simple soldat directed by Yves Desgagnés and Le Misanthrope directed by René Richard Cyr. He has developed a career that both the television and the movie world are sure to notice.
In 1992, television offered him a role in the popular miniserie Blanche and in the same year he was seen in two consecutive miniseries being Scoop and Shehaweh. In 1995, Picard was truly recognised by the public in the role of François Pelletier in the miniseries Omerta. He was then seen in L'Ombre de l'épervier from 1997 to 1999 and from 1999 to 2002 he takes on the role of the colorful syndicalist Michel Chartrand in Chartrand et Simone. In 2004-2005 the actor was also part of the dramatic series Vice caché playing the role of Michel Champagne.

His movie career is as impressive since he holds leading roles in more than 19 films between 1990 and 2005. He can be seen in such films as Nelligan (1990), Octobre (1994), Le dernier souffle (1998), 15 février 1839 (2000), La Femme qui boit (2000), Le Collectionneur (2001), Savage Messiah (2001), 20h17 Rue Darling (2002), L'Audition (2005) and Un dimanche à Kigali (2005).
In 2004, now on the other side of the camera, Luc Picard takes on his first role as director with L'Audition. This movie written by Luc was presented for the first time at the International Film Festival in Montreal. The film was awarded l'Iris d'or which is the highest distinction given at this event. The movie received the best Canadian film award and Luc Picard received the title of best Canadian actor.
As a prolific actor he received numerous awards for interpretation most especially for his roles in 20h17 rue Darling by Bernard Émond, 15 février 1839 by Pierre Falardeau and in Le collectionneur by Jean Beaudin. He was also recognised for his work in many television series such as L'Ombre de l'épervier, Chartrand et Simone, Omertà and most recently for Vice caché.
Either on the small or the big screen, all roles played by Luc Picard have touched the hearts of Quebecers. This versatile actor succeeds to move us now and always.

›› J’invente rien

Michel Leclerc, French director
J’invente rien

Michel Leclerc directed his first film, an 8 min animated short called Le Test Robert, in 1990, while working as an editor for various French TV programs. He directed a second short in 1993, and a third 20 minute film called Hélène et Lulu in 1995. Between 1990 and 2003, he directed 8 short films in all. In the meantime, he began to write a short program series for an affiliate Parisian television channel called Télébocal. In 2000, he wrote six episodes of Mes pires potes (My Worst Buddies), a sitcom produced for the French cable channel Canal +. He then developed another TV series called Avant, moi, je croyais… (I Used to Believe…) about the preconceived and sometimes silly ideas that you can have as a child about things you don’t really understand.
In 2003, he created and wrote 30 episodes of the critically acclaimed docu-drama series Age sensible (A Sensitive Age) broadcasted by France 2, a French public television channel.
In 2003, he co-directed with Bertrand Schmitt Les chimères des Svankmajer (The Chimeras of Svankmajer), a documentary about Jan Svankmajer, the Czech surrealist director of stop-motion animated films, which also aired on France 2.
In 2006 he made his feature-length breakthrough with J’invente rien (Handyman). He has also recently co-written screenplays for two other films, La Tête de maman (Mama’s Head) (French release March 2007), and Histoires bretonnes ( Brittany Stories), with Carine Tardieu.

A true renaissance man, Michel Leclerc is also an accomplished musician: since 2001, he has been the lead singer of a band called Minaro that released albums in 2003 and 2005; he also wrote the music and lyrics of four songs in J’invente rien.

›› Fair Play