Pierre-André Boutang

Directing

Pierre-André Boutang

Born 1937-01-01 · Paris, Ile-de-France, France

Pierre-André Boutang, born March 25, 1937, in Paris and died August 20, 2008, in Grosseto-Prugna, Corsica, was a French documentary filmmaker, producer, and director. He was one of the directors of the Franco-German channel Arte, after previously being one of the directors of La Sept. A major figure in French television, Pierre-André Boutang, producer, director, programmer, and interviewer, knew how to combine intelligence and a broad audience through films and documentary series for ORTF since the 1960s. Throughout his long career, Pierre-André Boutang explored the worlds of literature, film, and television while fostering intellectual debate. The son of philosopher Pierre Boutang, he was first a student at the Institute of Political Studies before becoming an assistant director for film and television. From 1962 to 1967, Pierre-André Boutang was responsible for selecting films for television, and later became a producer and director of numerous films and television series ("Les Écrans de la Ville," "Le Journal du Cinéma," "Cinéregards," "Champ Contre Champ"). He also wrote numerous articles for "Dim Dam Dom," a scathing program from the days of ORTF. From 1967 to 1986, he produced several programs such as "Le Nouveau dimanche," "L'invité du dimanche," "L'homme en question," "Désir des arts," "Projection privée," "Bibliothèque de poche," "Archives du XXe siècle," and then "Océaniques" for FR3, where he produced profiles of Fidel Castro, Martin Heidegger, and Louis Althusser. The magazine was awarded a 7 d'Or in 1987 and 1988. Television also owes him major series of interviews co-produced with Jean Rouch, including "Mémoires du XXe siècle," featuring portraits of Gilles Deleuze (3 DVDs from Editions Montparnasse) and Pierre Vidal-Naquet, as well as "Sartre par lui-même," in which the philosopher spoke about his work for three hours. At the same time, he produced films for the cinema by Jean Yanne, Marco Ferreri, Robert Bresson, and Alexandre Astruc's Sartre par lui-même, as well as Otar Iosseliani's Les Favoris de la lune. He is the author of a biography of Roman Polanski. In 1990, invited by historian Georges Duby to work for Sept, the cultural television channel that later became Arte, he was appointed Deputy Director of Programming under Jérôme Clément and launched the cultural magazine "Océanopolis." Pierre-André Boutang, the initiator of numerous "Thema" programs that contributed to the channel's success, also created the channel's cultural magazine, "Metropolis," for which he was editor-in-chief for France from 1995 to 2006. For eighteen years, Pierre-André Boutang had become a pillar of Arte. The Franco-German channel broadcast his documentaries such as "The ABCs of Gilles Deleuze," "13 Days in the Life of Picasso," "Alexander Solzhenitsyn," "Depardieu, the View of Others," "Mao, a Chinese Story," and, most recently, "Jeanne M," a portrait of Jeanne Moreau, and "Claude Levi-Strauss by Himself."

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Ciné regards: Tess: Roman Polanski poster
NR

Television documentary about the making of Roman Polanski's 1979 film, Tess.

Ciné regards: Tess: Roman Polanski

1979

Gilles Deleuze from A to Z poster
8.0

The eight-hour series of interviews between Gilles Deleuze and Claire Parnet, filmed by Pierre-André Boutang in 1988-1989.

Gilles Deleuze from A to Z

1989

No artwork available
6.0

This documentary is an account of the life and work of Louis Malle, a unique figure in cinema, who was one of the world's best-known French film directors.

Louis Malle - Un cinéaste français

2003

Claude Lévi-Strauss par lui-même poster
NR

In what way can reflecting on worlds very far from our own, either in space or time, bear relevance for us today? Is there a scientific legacy - a before and after Lévi-Strauss - in anthropology? This documentary retraces the intellectual path of the author of "Tristes tropiques" ("A World on the Wane") and "La Pensée sauvage" ("The Savage Mind"), Claude Lévi-Strauss. The anthropologist and founder of structural anthropology in France is portrayed via numerous selected extracts of interviews he has given since the 1960s. The film is a fascinating introduction into the mind of a man who is interested in all men. Lévi-Strauss has great confidence (in spite of a pessimistic view of our contemporary world) in the creative capacities of the human mind.

Claude Lévi-Strauss par lui-même

2008

Toni Negri, des années de plomb à "l'Empire" poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Toni Negri, des années de plomb à "l'Empire"

2004

Duras/Godard poster
NR

On December 2, 1987, the filmmaker visited the novelist at her home in Paris. This meeting gave rise to this hour-long documentary in which JLG and Marguerite Duras attempt to establish a dialogue about artistic creation.

Duras/Godard

1987

No artwork available
NR

Based on the Spanish artist's diaries, sketches and paintings, Pierre Philippe's film for the international documentary strand charts 13 days in the life of Pablo Picasso. Events include the death of a friend, his marriage, the birth of his daughter Maya, the bombing of Guernica and the death of Joseph Stalin.

Picasso Days

2000

A Little Monastery in Tuscany poster
5.0

It is a brief documentary which records the life of five Augustinian monks in the little monastery of Castelnuovo dell'Abate, a Tuscan village, as well as the everyday life of people in the small town, from farmers to meat-hackers, from wine-makers to wild boar hunters.

A Little Monastery in Tuscany

1988

No artwork available
NR

Roman Polanski hasn't given an interview for many years. However, in the conversation from 2006 with the author Pierre-André Boutang, illustrated with numerous film clips and archives, the filmmaker provides insights into his life and work.

Polanski par Polanski

2006

No artwork available
NR

Roman Polanski hasn't given an interview for many years. However, in the conversation from 2006 with the author Pierre-André Boutang, illustrated with numerous film clips and archives, the filmmaker provides insights into his life and work.

Polanski par Polanski

2006

13 Days in the Life of Pablo Picasso poster
NR

A French documentary charting the life of the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso through the events of 13 significant days of his life, including his marriage to Olga Kokhlova, the birth of his daughter, the bombing of Guernica and the death of Stalin. Archive footage of Picasso, his lover Françoise Gilot, writer Jean Cocteau, photographer Brassat and critic Pierre Daix is accompanied by new interviews with Picasso's daughter Maya and son Claude.

13 Days in the Life of Pablo Picasso

1999

Conversation avec Henri Langlois poster
NR

Henri Langlois, interviewed in the Cinema Museum at the Palais de Chaillot, talks about his vision of cinema's past, present and future, before a brief jaunt through the museum as it was in 1975.

Conversation avec Henri Langlois

1975

René Girard - La Violence et le Sacré poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

René Girard - La Violence et le Sacré

Alexandre Soljenitsyne, le combat d'un homme poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Alexandre Soljenitsyne, le combat d'un homme

2005

De qui dépend que l’oppression demeure ? poster
10.0

On May 21, 1975, the trial of the members of the Red Army Faction (also known as the Baader-Meinstein Gang) began. Four members appeared before the Stuttgart court to answer for the attacks that had been raging for five years in the young Federal Republic of Germany. The documentary, whose title is borrowed from Berthold Brecht's In Praise of Dialectics, recounts the conditions of the trials and detention of the Baader-Meinstein Gang members and the disqualification of Klaus Croissant as their lawyer.

De qui dépend que l’oppression demeure ?

1975

De qui dépend que l’oppression demeure ? poster
10.0

On May 21, 1975, the trial of the members of the Red Army Faction (also known as the Baader-Meinstein Gang) began. Four members appeared before the Stuttgart court to answer for the attacks that had been raging for five years in the young Federal Republic of Germany. The documentary, whose title is borrowed from Berthold Brecht's In Praise of Dialectics, recounts the conditions of the trials and detention of the Baader-Meinstein Gang members and the disqualification of Klaus Croissant as their lawyer.

De qui dépend que l’oppression demeure ?

1975

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

The Making of The Lover

1991

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

The Making of The Lover

1991

Chasing Butterflies poster
5.8

Two old ladies live in a French chateau. When one of them dies, her sister, who lives in Moscow, inherits the property, which soon ends up in the hands of Japanese businessmen.

Chasing Butterflies

1992

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Satyajit ray, calcutta 89

Journey of a “Cine-Son” poster
9.0

Serge Daney, the most influential film critic after André Bazin, interviewed by Régis Debray a few months before his death.

Journey of a “Cine-Son”

1992

Orson Welles at the Cinémathèque Française poster
10.0

On April 24th, 1982, when Orson Welles was invited to Paris to receive the Légion d'honneur from François Mitterand, a lively filmed interview took place inside the French Cinémathèque.

Orson Welles at the Cinémathèque Française

1983

1917: La révolution russe poster
5.0

No synopsis available yet.

1917: La révolution russe

2007