Abdellatif Kechiche

Biography: life and films

If there is one film director working in France today who can convince us that the auteur tradition is still alive and flourishing it is Abdellatif Kechiche. Between 2000 and 2013 he has made only five full-length films, but each of these has been critically acclaimed and some have achieved considerable success at the box office. Kechiche's approach to filmmaking is very much in the style of previous revered auteurs like Maurice Pialat - low-key naturalistic dramas made on the tightest of budgets, usually with unknown or inexperienced actors. Despite the recent furore in the French media concerning his allegedly brutal working methods, Kechiche remains a highly respected film director, willing to tackle difficult subjects such as illegal immigration, social exclusion and lesbianism with unwavering honesty and humanity.

Kechiche was born on 7th December 1960 in Tunis, Tunisia, but grew up in France after his parents, working class immigrants, settled in Nice when he was 6 years old. He developed a passion for the theatre at an early age and, after studying drama at the Antibes Conservatoire, he began acting on stage in various productions on the Côte d'Azur, including: Eduardo Manet's Un balcon sur les Andes (1979), Paul Claudel's L'Échange (1982) and Alexandre Dumas's Monte Cristo (1987). He had his first screen role, playing the lead (a young Algerian immigrant), in Abdelkrim Bahloul's Thé à la menthe (1984). André Téchiné then gave him a notable part in Les Innocents (1987), playing alongside Sandrine Bonnaire. Five years later, Kechiche met his future partner Ghalya Lacroix, who would work on the films he subsequently directed, as screenwriter and editor.

The fate of illegal immigrants in present day France was the subject of the first film that Kechiche directed in 2000, Faute à Voltaire. Starring Sami Bouajila and Élodie Bouchez, this authentic slice of life won its director critical acclaim and received two awards at the Venice Film Festival in 2001. After this promising debut, Abdellatif Kechiche had his first major success with L'Esquive (2003), a low budget film following a class of underprivileged adolescents from immigrant families in the Paris suburbs as they rehearse a Marivaux play. Not only was the film a hit with audiences and critics, it scooped four awards at the 2005 Césars ceremony, including those for Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay. L'Esquive's striking naturalism and fierce engagement with today's pressing social concerns led Kechiche to be likened to the British filmmaker Ken Loach.

Kechiche's next film was La Graine et le mulet (2007), a heartwarming drama about a North African immigrant shipyard worker who dreams of opening a restaurant in the town of Sète. Again, the film impressed the critics with its humanity and authentic depiction of life on the margins, the harshness of the subject matter softened by a subtle poetry that is unique to the film's director. The film's accolades not only repeated Kechiche's tally of Césars (again he took the Best Director, Best Film and Best Screenplay prizes), these also included the Special Jury Prize at the 2007 Venice Film Festival and the Louis-Delluc for 2007.

With Vénus noire, Kechiche made his first foray into period drama, one about a freak show exhibit of the 19th century. Running to over two and half hours in length, the film proved to be a monumental flop (it only attracted 200 thousand spectators in France) and critical reaction was fairly mixed. The film's failure resulted in a spectacular falling out between the director and his producer, Marin Karmitz of MK2. After this setback, it would be three years before Kechiche completed his next film, but it would turn out to be another winner.

Adapted from Julie Maroh's graphic novel Le Bleu est une couleur chaude, La Vie d'Adèle (2013) won praise throughout the world for its frank and brutal depiction of a lesbian love affair between two young women from different social backgrounds. Although the film was a commercial and critical success, it provoked controversy when one of its lead actresses spoke out in condemnation of the director's abusive treatment of her and her co-star. Kechiche put up a fierce defence and the film went on to attract an audience of over a million in France. It won its director his second Louis-Delluc prize, and also the Palme d'or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival (shared with his two lead actresses). The film was also nominated for eight Césars, but, possibly owing to the bad press it attracted, it received only one award - in the Most Promising Actress category for Adèle Exarchopoulos.

Filmography

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