François Villiers
François Villiers ( born March 2, 1920 in Paris, † January 29, 2009 in Boulogne- Billancourt, Hauts -de -Seine, France), holder of the Order of Chevalier de la Légion d' honneur, was a French film director and screenwriter.
Life and work
François Villiers was born in 1920 under the legal name of Solomon, the son of François Alexandre Solomon, the owner of the Linen Business La Maison Du Blanc, and Suzanne Cahen. The father Villiers, whose family came from Holland, was a Jew; his mother was a Frenchwoman. His older brother was the famous actor Jean -Pierre Aumont ( 1911-2001 ). His mother's uncle was the famous actor Georges Berr ( 1867-1942 ).
François Villiers, a discreet man, talented and sensitive, created a dozen notable films. He made his debut with the drama The Hafenbar of Marseille ( Hans le marin, 1949) that he made together with Lilli Palmer, Jean- Pierre Aumont and his wife, the Dominican actress Maria Montez ( 1912-1951 ) in 1948. His works include, among others, Manika, une vie plus tard (1989 ) for which he won the Audience Award at Cannes. In Hollywood he received for the natural drama When the tide comes in (L' eau vive, 1958) - by Jean Giono with Pascale Audret in the role of Hortense, who was awarded Best Actress at the Étoile de Cristal - in 1959, the Golden Globe for best foreign language film. The films Green Harvest (La Verte Moisson, 1959) with Jacques Perrin and Claude Brasseur, Pierrot la tendresse (1960 ) with Michel Simon, and The Corsican son ( Jusqu'au bout du monde ) - for which he in the Grand Prix of French cinema year 1962 was - as well as the three truths (Le Puits aux trois vérités, 1961) and the murder that happened twice ( Constance aux enfers, 1963) with Michèle Morgan were more known films from him.
In the mid- 1960s, Villiers turned to television and created a series of such famous television series such as Les Chevaliers du ciel ( 1967-1970 ) and Jean- Christophe ( 1978) for a presentation of the Nobel Prize winner for literature Romain Rolland. He also turned the German - French co-production solar Horses ( Les Chevaux du soleil, 1980) by the French writer Jules Roy in which participated among others Götz George and Gila von Weitershausen, and Quelques hommes de bonne volonté (1983 ) of the French novelist Jules Romains, a adaptation of the author Marcel Jullian.
As a director of popular film and television productions, he was known for the presentation of complex data. Villiers also wrote the screenplays for many of his films, such as The Hafenbar to Marseille, The three truths or Manika, une vie plus tard, his last film.
François Villiers died 29 January 2009, the 8th anniversary of the death of his brother Jean -Pierre Aumont, at the age of 88 years in Boulogne- Billancourt in the department of Hauts -de- Seine.