Claude Berri

With "Jean de Florette" and "Manon of the Spring" in the late '80s, the prolific French producer-director Claude Berri reached a new plateau in a film career that began in 1967 with the semi-autobiographical "Two of Us," about an anti-Semitic old farmer who nevertheless loves the little Jewish boy he shelters during World War II.

Claude Berri, the French filmmaker who was a fixture in his country's film industry for more than 50 years and is perhaps best known for directing "Jean de Florette," which earned him international acclaim, died Monday. He was 74. Berri, whose short film "Le Poulet" (The Chicken) was awarded an Oscar in 1965, was hospitalized Sunday in Paris and died of what his agent, Dominique Segall, described as a "cerebral vascular" problem -- language often used to describe a stroke.

Claude Berri, the French filmmaker who was a fixture in his country's film industry for more than 50 years and is perhaps best known for directing "Jean de Florette," which earned him international acclaim, died Monday. He was 74. Berri, whose short film "Le Poulet" (The Chicken) was awarded an Oscar in 1965, was hospitalized Sunday in Paris and died of what his agent, Dominique Segall, described as a "cerebral vascular" problem -- language often used to describe a stroke.

Leave it to a veteran French filmmaker, Claude Berri, to bring maximum charm, wisdom and humor to a May-December romance in "The Housekeeper," his stylish adaptation of a novel by Christian Oster. His film is a summer treat for sophisticated moviegoers -- graceful and serious, yet not overly so. This easy-to-take movie gets everything just right and is a pleasure to watch.

Re "Lights, Camera, Quotas!" editorial, Oct. 24: It seems necessary to us to firmly state that there are no quotas on importation of foreign films to France but a limit to the number of the foreign films which can be broadcast by the French TV channels. Today, 60% of the films broadcast by the TV channels must be European Community-made, and the rest may be provided by any country in the world, but note also that there are neither quotas for movie screening in theaters, nor quotas for video rentals and sales!

When an actor begins to tear up the stage or set, as Gerard Depardieu does repeatedly in "Uranus" (Goldwyn Pavilion), at one point ripping chairs, tables and even gendarmes apart, it's common for some audiences and critics to recoil, file affidavits of theatrical assault. And certainly, Depardieu is hamming it up in "Uranus"--supremely.

"Jean de Florette" (at the Royal) is like good peasant bread: honest, chewy, unsurprising and heavily satisfying. Its two hours are the first part of Claude Berri's four-hour adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's 'L'Eau des Collines" ("Water of the Hills"), an epic novel of Provence, where so many of the Pagnol-directed films were set.

"Manon of the Spring" (opening Friday at the Royal) brings Marcel Pagnol's great "Water of the Hills" saga, which began with "Jean de Florette," to a towering conclusion. Together, the two films constitute a landmark in French cinema, a tribute to the late writer.

Leave it to a veteran French filmmaker, Claude Berri, to bring maximum charm, wisdom and humor to a May-December romance in "The Housekeeper," his stylish adaptation of a novel by Christian Oster. His film is a summer treat for sophisticated moviegoers -- graceful and serious, yet not overly so. This easy-to-take movie gets everything just right and is a pleasure to watch.

Claude Berri's soaring 1993 film of the Emile Zola novel is an epic saga of the grinding existence of 19th-Century French coal miners. Gerard Depardieu, pictured, plays a miner whose family suffers terrible consequences when it becomes involved in a strike. A worthy successor to Berri's "Jean de Florette" and "Manon of the Spring." Pictures don't get much bleaker than this 158-minute movie--but they don't get much more beautiful either.Also starring Miou-Miou (TMC early Friday at 1 a.m.).

With "Jean de Florette" and "Manon of the Spring" in the late '80s, the prolific French producer-director Claude Berri reached a new plateau in a film career that began in 1967 with the semi-autobiographical "Two of Us," about an anti-Semitic old farmer who nevertheless loves the little Jewish boy he shelters during World War II.

Re "Lights, Camera, Quotas!" editorial, Oct. 24: It seems necessary to us to firmly state that there are no quotas on importation of foreign films to France but a limit to the number of the foreign films which can be broadcast by the French TV channels. Today, 60% of the films broadcast by the TV channels must be European Community-made, and the rest may be provided by any country in the world, but note also that there are neither quotas for movie screening in theaters, nor quotas for video rentals and sales!

When an actor begins to tear up the stage or set, as Gerard Depardieu does repeatedly in "Uranus" (Goldwyn Pavilion), at one point ripping chairs, tables and even gendarmes apart, it's common for some audiences and critics to recoil, file affidavits of theatrical assault. And certainly, Depardieu is hamming it up in "Uranus"--supremely.

"Manon of the Spring" (opening Friday at the Royal) brings Marcel Pagnol's great "Water of the Hills" saga, which began with "Jean de Florette," to a towering conclusion. Together, the two films constitute a landmark in French cinema, a tribute to the late writer.

"Jean de Florette" (at the Royal) is like good peasant bread: honest, chewy, unsurprising and heavily satisfying. Its two hours are the first part of Claude Berri's four-hour adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's 'L'Eau des Collines" ("Water of the Hills"), an epic novel of Provence, where so many of the Pagnol-directed films were set.

Compromise Reached: The French film academy found a compromise Thursday over a disputed decision to bar foreign-language films from its annual Cesar awards. The Academy of Cinematic Arts and Technology decided that only the best film award would be restricted to French-language productions. The other Cesars--French equivalents of the Oscars--would be open to any film made with French money or expertise.