Directed by Maurice Pialat • 1987 • France
Starring Gérard Depardieu, Sandrine Bonnaire, Maurice Pialat
Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival—where its victory was greeted with more than a bit of controversy—Maurice Pialat’s searing adaptation of a novel by Georges Bernanos stars Gérard Depardieu as a priest in the throes of a moral and spiritual crisis who channels his torment into saving the soul of a pregnant teenager (Sandrine Bonnaire) who has murdered her lover. Depardieu’s visceral performance and Pialat’s rigorous style come together to create an intense, shattering exploration of faith, sin, and salvation.
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Van Gogh
Directed by Maurice Pialat • 1991 • France
Starring Jacques Dutronc, Alexandra London, Bernard Le CoqMaurice Pialat’s visually stunning penultimate work is an epic, masterful dramatization of the final months in the life of the troubled painter (played by musician Jacques Dutronc in a César-win...
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Le garçu
Directed by Maurice Pialat • 1995 • France
Starring Gérard Depardieu, Géraldine Pailhas, Antoine PialatMaurice Pialat’s final film, this searing autobiographical drama continues his lacerating explorations of human relationships in all their messy, emotionally volatile complexity. Gérard (Gérar...
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L’amour existe
Directed by Maurice Pialat • 1960 • France
This contemplative short film, directed by Maurice Pialat in 1960, depicts life in the banlieues, or suburbs, of Paris and the dead-end existence of the youth residing there.
