Over the past six decades, the Oscar-winning French screenwriter worked with the world's top filmmakers, including Luis Bunuel.
Jean-Claude Carrière accepting his Honorary Oscar in 2014Image: Chris Pizzello/AP/picture alliance
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French screenwriter and author Jean-Claude Carriere, who wrote some of the most iconic movies of the past half century, has died on Monday at his home in Paris at the age of 89, his daughter told AFP.
Having won a first Oscar for best short film in 1963, the prolific writer gained international renown through his collaboration with surrealist Spanish filmmaker Luis Bunuel. Belle de Jour (1967), a provocative work starring Catherine Deneuve as a high-class prostitute, shocked audiences with its sadomasochist scenes.
Carriere and Bunuel's work together includes other memorable films, such as The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) and The Obscure Object of Desire (1977).
The screenwriter also co-wrote with German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff the adaptation of The Tin Drum (1979), based on the novel by Nobel Prize laureate Günter Grass. The film won Cannes Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for best foreign language film.
'The Tin Drum' and other iconic films by Jean-Claude Carriere
The legendary French screenwriter has died at the age of 89. From "Cyrano de Bergerac" to "The Unbearable Lightness Of Being," here are some of his most famous works.
Image: Imago/AGD
'The Tin Drum' (1979)
Based on the novel of Nobel Prize laureate Günter Grass, the film directed by Volker Schlöndorff won Cannes' Palme d'Or and Germany's first Oscar for best foreign film. As a co-writer of the screenplay, Jean-Claude Carriere contributed to the success of this film classic.
Image: Imago/AGD
'Belle de Jour' (1967)
Starring Catherine Deneuve as a young woman who works a prostitute while her husband is not at home, the film by Spanish enfant terrible Luis Bunuel, co-written with Carriere, gained renown for its shocking sadomasochist scenes. It also won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1967.
Carriere and Bunuel spent many years collaborating on screenplays, leading to other acclaimed works such as "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie." The film tells the story of a group of bourgeois people attempting to dine together — but the gathering is constantly interrupted for absurd reasons. It won the Academy Award for best foreign language film and a nomination for best screenplay.
Image: picture-alliance
'The Swimming Pool' (1969)
An atmosphere of erotic languor turns into horror in the Italian-French psychological thriller film "La Piscine," directed by Jacques Deray and co-written by Carriere. The stars of the film, Romy Schneider, Alain Delon and Jane Birkin, contribute to the movie's cult status.
Image: picture alliance/United Archiv
'Cyrano de Bergerac' (1990)
Based on the 1897 play by Edmond Rostand, the comedy-drama memorably starred Gerard Depardieu in the role of a poet and swashbuckler with a huge nose. The film won many awards; among other distinctions, Jean-Claude Carriere and Jean-Paul Rappeneau's adapted screenplay was nominated for a BAFTA film award.
Image: picture-alliance/Everett Collection
'The Unbearable Lightness Of Being' (1988)
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Juliette Binoche, this film is based on the same-titled novel by Milan Kundera. The exploration of intellectual and artistic life during the Prague Spring was praised for artfully blending the political and the erotic. Jean-Claude Carriere and Philip Kaufman were nominated for an Oscar for best adapted screenplay.
Image: picture alliance/United Archives/IFTN
'At Eternity's Gate'
Working up until his death on February 8, 2020, at the age of 89, Jean-Claude Carriere contributed to more than 150 screenplays. Among his most recent award-winning works is "At Eternity's Gate," directed by Julian Schnabel and starring Willem Dafoe as Vincent van Gogh.
Another Oscar nomination came for his screenplay of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, based on the novel by Milan Kundera, written together with director Philip Kaufman.
The 1990 comedy-drama Cyrano de Bergerac, with Gerard Depardieu in the title role, is another one of Carriere's best known adaptions of a literary classic. His screenplay for a previous work starring Depardieu, The Return of Martin Guerre, had won a French Cesar in 1983.
In a career spanning six decades, Carriere collected over 150 screen credits, penning works up until his death.
His most recent screenplays include At Eternity's Gate, the 2018 biopic by Julian Schnabel about painter Vincent van Gogh, as well as The Salt of Tears, a film directed by Philippe Garrel that premiered at the Berlinale competition in 2020.
The screenwriter was also recognized with an Honorary Oscar in 2014.
Beyond his film work, Carriere also wrote various books, including The Power of Buddhism (1999) with the Dalai Lama and This is Not the End of the Book with Umberto Eco, which came out in English in 2012.
His collaboration with English theater director Peter Brook on the stage version of The Mahabharata is also legendary: The ancient Sanskrit epic was turned into a nine-hour play that was first performed at the Avignon festival in 1985.
