Born in the mountain village of Cunhat, Puy de Dome, France on August 31, 1925, Pialat grew up in Paris from age three and studied art at its Ecole des Arts Decoratifs and Ecole des Beaux Arts. After World War II, he painted and had several exhibitions of his work. By the late '50s, Pialat became fascinated with cinema, and he got his start making short films, notably L'Amour Existe/Love Exists (1960), which won a prize at the Venice Festival. Pialat spent the next decade directing for French television and making documentaries in Turkey and Saudi Arabia before embarking on his feature film career in Enfance nue, L' aka Naked Childhood (1969). This bleak, semi-autobiographical drama about a troubled childhood immediately set the tone for Pialat's cinema verite style: tough realism, the use of non-professional actors (with some exceptions), long takes and moments of punctuating improvisation. Pialat continued to incorporate personal issues in his next two films: Nous ne vieillrons pas ensemble/We Will Not Grow Old Together (1972), about his agonizing marital breakdown; and Gueule ouverte, La aka The Mouth Agape (1974), about the impact of his elderly mother's death from cancer.
International fame arrived with his first film featuring the celebrated French star Gerard Depardieu, Loulou (1980). This trenchant study of middle-class boredom and the cathartic benefits of hedonism and thuggery drew praise from all quarters and proved Pialat to be one of the toughest critics on modern French society. His next film A nos amours aka To Our Loves (1983), focused on the emotionally unstable life of a promiscuous teenager (Sandrine Bonnaire) with Pialat acting impressively as her perplexed father; and Police (1985), was his first venture into the crime genre that reunited him with Depardieu.
He won the Cannes Film Festival's coveted Palme d'Or/Golden Palm for Sous le soleil de Satan aka Under Satan's Sun (1987) a harsh, provocative tale about a clergyman's (Gerard Depardieu) disturbing relationship with a young woman (Sandrine Bonnaire) and his encounter with satanic elements. Pialat's last two films were met with lukewarm reception: Van Gogh (1991), was his overlong look at the last year of the painter's life; and his final film, Le Garcu (1995) was a refreshingly simple story about a young boy (Pialat's son Antoine) and his aimless, womanizing father (Depardieu).
Although he only made ten feature length films in his career, Pialat made his mark in French cinema with his tough cinematic techniques and probing subject matters. He is survived by his only son, Antoine.
by Michael T. Toole
