Jean-Claude Carrière

Writing

Jean-Claude Carrière

Born 1931-09-17 · Colombières-sur-Orb, Hérault, France

Jean-Claude Carrière (17 September 1931 – 8 February 2021) was a French novelist, screenwriter and actor. He received an Academy Award for best short film for co-writing Heureux Anniversaire (1963), and was later conferred an Honorary Oscar in 2014. He was nominated for the Academy Award three other times for his work in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), That Obscure Object of Desire (1977), and The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988). He also won a César Award for Best Original Screenplay in The Return of Martin Guerre (1983). Carrière was an alumnus of the École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud and was president of La Fémis, the French state film school that he helped establish. He was noted as a frequent collaborator with Luis Buñuel on the screenplays of the latter's late French films.

Acting credits

Diary of a Chambermaid poster
7.1

Celestine has a new job as a chambermaid for the quirky M. Monteil, his wife and her father. When the father dies, Celestine decides to quit her job and leave, but when a young girl is raped and murdered, Celestine believes that the Monteils' groundskeeper, Joseph, is guilty, and stays on in order to prove it. She uses her sexuality and the promise of marriage to get Joseph to confess -- but things do not go as planned.

Diary of a Chambermaid

1964

Certified Copy poster
7.0

In Tuscany to promote his latest book, a middle-aged English writer meets a French woman who leads him to the village of Lucignano.

Certified Copy

2010

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Miloš Forman

2010

Goya, Carrière & the Ghost of Buñuel poster
7.5

French writer Jean-Claude Carrière (1931-2021) traces the life and work of Spanish painter Francisco de Goya (1746-1828).

Goya, Carrière & the Ghost of Buñuel

2022

Borsalino City poster
7.5

The history of the birth of an icon, the Borsalino hat. From the factory where it was conceived in a small Italian town, to the glamorous world of Hollywood.

Borsalino City

2016

No artwork available
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Mostashregh

2019

L'Œuvre invisible poster
NR

This profile of director Alexandre Trannoy is profoundly moving. But you would be forgiven for asking 'Alexandre who?' because Trannoy never completed a single film in his 30-year career, despite working on multiple projects and with illustrious names like Jean Rochefort, Anouk Aimée, Lino Ventura and Marlene Dietrich. A fascinating study of a noble dreamer.

L'Œuvre invisible

2026

The Milky Way poster
7.1

Two men, part tramp, part pilgrim, are on their way from France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. On their way, they meet a vast assortment of characters—some truculent, some violent, and some bizarre; they experience many adventures—some mysterious, some erotic, some even supernatural.

The Milky Way

1969

Avida poster
5.8

The kidnapping of a plump billionaire's dog by a deaf-mute and 2 ketamine addicts goes wrong. The wealthy woman takes advantage of the situation to make them fullfil her last wishes.

Avida

2006

The Suitor poster
6.5

Absent-minded yet cultured, Pierre answers his parents demands to wed by ignoring both astronomy and the housemaid, instead falling head-over-heels for rich damsels.

The Suitor

1962

These Kids Are Grown-Ups poster
4.7

When a real-estate promoter attempts to take over the homes of two electronics whizzes and boot them out, they contrive ingenious ways to inconvenience and harass him. By pooling their knowledge, they are able to pull off a crucial robbery using a very special box of chocolates.

These Kids Are Grown-Ups

1979

Searching for Ingmar Bergman poster
5.9

A meaningful account of the personal and professional life of the great Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) that explores his film legacy, with interviews with his closest collaborators and a new generation of filmmakers.

Searching for Ingmar Bergman

2018

Miloš Forman: What Doesn't Kill You… poster
6.5

Why did Milos Forman have to make certain films the way he did? Where does his inner strength come from? What is the story of his life?

Miloš Forman: What Doesn't Kill You…

2009

Serious as Pleasure poster
3.9

Two men and a woman live quite happily together in a romantic liaison. The woman is probably wealthy anyway, so the trio doesn't worry much about money. One day they decide to take a trip in their beat-up car, managing the whole affair in their own special, insouciant manner. They are followed by a suspicious policeman who thinks there's something fishy about this group.

Serious as Pleasure

1975

The Life and Times of Don Luis Buñuel poster
7.0

Made a year after Luis Buñuel's death in 1983 this is an illuminating portrait of the surreal and visionary director, featuring clips, archival interviews, and commentary from scholars and contemporaries including Catherine Deneuve, Fernando Rey, and Jeanne Moreau. Directed by Anthony Wall with readings from Buñuel's autobiography by Paul Scofield. Six trims to meet copyright restrictions.

The Life and Times of Don Luis Buñuel

1984

Buñuel in Hollywood poster
8.0

This documentary traces the relationship of Buñuel with American culture and Hollywood. The program proposes a chronological journey through the Aragonese filmmaker stays in the U.S., the characters he met, the films he made and he could never do. The program also includes new material-unpublished until 2012 - the Aragonese director filmed in the U.S. in the early 1940s and where he can be seen playing one of their children or enjoying a short holiday in a cottage.

Buñuel in Hollywood

2000

No artwork available
NR

A Documentary about the Making of Peter Brook's "Mahabharata".

Making 'The Mahabharata'

1989

The Associate poster
6.5

An unemployed investor creates a fictious business partner to attempt to improve business. Eventually, his creation gets out of control as his business becomes successful and his wife announces that she is in love with the partner and his son wishes the partner was his father -- although no one has ever seen him. To regain control, the man decides to "kill" his imaginary partner and is arrested for the murder.

The Associate

1979

The Associate poster
6.5

An unemployed investor creates a fictious business partner to attempt to improve business. Eventually, his creation gets out of control as his business becomes successful and his wife announces that she is in love with the partner and his son wishes the partner was his father -- although no one has ever seen him. To regain control, the man decides to "kill" his imaginary partner and is arrested for the murder.

The Associate

1979

Photo-souvenir poster
8.0

This film in the popular French television series Cinéma 16 stars Jean-Claude Carrière as a surgeon who becomes obsessed with decrypting a series of mysterious Polaroid snapshots

Photo-souvenir

1978

Surprise Sock poster
5.5

Following a car accident, four men find themselves in the hospital, where they sow discord. Meanwhile, their wives take full advantage of their newfound freedom.

Surprise Sock

1978

No artwork available
8.0

Documentary about Buñuel's Tristana.

Rituals

2007

Robert Doisneau: Through the Lens poster
7.1

Featuring previously unissued photographs and video archives as well as interviews of his friends and partners in crime, this documentary tells how the kid from the poor suburbs turned superstar photographer. It draws the intimate portrait of the life and work – being so closely interwoven – of and artist fiercely determined to be purveyor of happiness.

Robert Doisneau: Through the Lens

2017

The Garden of Torment poster
4.6

The story of a Antoine, a physician who was exiled to China in the 1930's due to his drug habit.

The Garden of Torment

1976

Behind the camera

Exploits of a Young Don Juan poster
6.2

In 1914, sixteen year old Roger returned home from boarding school during vacation to find his puberty hit hard in a house filled with beautiful women. These women have previous engagements with other men who are away, and during this time, Roger impregnates them all, including his aunt and sister, then devises plans to cuckold the men.

Exploits of a Young Don Juan

1986

The Tin Drum poster
7.0

In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.

The Tin Drum

1979

Belle de Jour poster
7.3

Beautiful young housewife Séverine Serizy cannot reconcile her masochistic fantasies with her everyday life alongside dutiful husband Pierre. When her lovestruck friend Henri mentions a secretive high-class brothel run by Madame Anais, Séverine begins to work there during the day under the name Belle de Jour. But when one of her clients grows possessive, she must try to go back to her normal life.

Belle de Jour

1967

Valmont poster
6.7

Set in Baroque France, a scheming widow and her lover make a bet regarding the corruption of a recently married woman. The lover, Valmont, bets that he can seduce her, even though she is an honorable woman. If he wins, he can have his lover to do as he will. However, in the process of seducing the married woman, Valmont falls in love.

Valmont

1989

Birth poster
6.1

It took Anna 10 years to recover from the death of her husband, Sean, but now she's on the verge of marrying her boyfriend, Joseph, and finally moving on. However, on the night of her engagement party, a young boy named Sean turns up, saying he is her dead husband reincarnated. At first she ignores the child, but his knowledge of her former husband's life is uncanny, leading her to believe that he might be telling the truth.

Birth

2004

The Swimming Pool poster
7.0

Set in a magnificent villa near a sun-drenched St. Tropez, lovers Jean-Paul and Marianne are spending a happy, lazy summer holiday. Their only concern is to gratify their mutual passion - until the day when Marianne invites her former lover and his beautiful teenage daughter to spend a few days with them. From the first moment, a certain uneasiness and tension begin to develop between the four, which soon escalates in a dangerous love-game.

The Swimming Pool

1969

At Eternity's Gate poster
7.0

Famed but tormented artist Vincent van Gogh spends his final years in Arles, France, painting masterworks of the natural world that surrounds him.

At Eternity's Gate

2018

The Unbearable Lightness of Being poster
6.8

Successful surgeon Tomas leaves Prague for an operation, meets a young photographer named Tereza, and brings her back with him. Tereza is surprised to learn that Tomas is already having an affair with the bohemian Sabina, but when the Soviet invasion occurs, all three flee to Switzerland. Sabina begins an affair, Tom continues womanizing, and Tereza, disgusted, returns to Czechoslovakia. Realizing his mistake, Tomas decides to chase after her.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

1988

Golden Boy poster
6.5

Antoine a Union representative works in a financially troubled factory. He's not the sharpest tool in the box but he has a big heart and when he and his wife win the jackpot of the national lottery. Antoine will invest his gain to try and safe the factory.

Golden Boy

1996

Goya's Ghosts poster
6.6

Painter Francisco Goya becomes involved with the Spanish Inquisition after his muse, Inés, is arrested by the church for heresy. Her family turns to him, hoping that his connection with fanatical Inquisitor Lorenzo, whom he is painting, can secure her release.

Goya's Ghosts

2006

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie poster
7.5

In Luis Buñuel’s deliciously satiric masterpiece, an upper-class sextet sits down to dinner but never eats, their attempts continually thwarted by a vaudevillian mixture of events both actual and imagined.

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

1972

That Obscure Object of Desire poster
7.5

After dumping a bucket of water on a beautiful young woman from the window of a train car, wealthy Frenchman Mathieu, regales his fellow passengers with the story of the dysfunctional relationship between himself and the young woman in question, a fiery 19-year-old flamenco dancer named Conchita. What follows is a tale of cruelty, depravity and lies -- the very building blocks of love.

That Obscure Object of Desire

1977

The Crusade poster
5.2

Abel, Marianne and their 13-year-old son Joseph live together in Paris. Their everyday existence is thrown into turmoil when Abel and Marianne discover that Joseph has secretly sold valuables from the family home to finance a mysterious ecological project he and his friends have in Africa. They’re about to save the planet.

The Crusade

2021

Diary of a Chambermaid poster
7.1

Celestine has a new job as a chambermaid for the quirky M. Monteil, his wife and her father. When the father dies, Celestine decides to quit her job and leave, but when a young girl is raped and murdered, Celestine believes that the Monteils' groundskeeper, Joseph, is guilty, and stays on in order to prove it. She uses her sexuality and the promise of marriage to get Joseph to confess -- but things do not go as planned.

Diary of a Chambermaid

1964

Viva Maria! poster
6.0

1907 Central America: Maria II is the daughter of an Irish terrorist. After her father's death, she meets Maria I, a performer, and decides to stay with the circus, and on her debut as a singer, unintentionally invents the striptease and makes the circus famous. Their inadvertent encounter with a socialist revolutionary lands them leading a revolution against the dictator, the capitalists, and the Church.

Viva Maria!

1965

Danton poster
6.9

Danton and Robespierre were close friends and fought together in the French Revolution, but by 1793 Robespierre was France's ruler, determined to wipe out opposition with a series of mass executions that became known as the Reign of Terror. Danton, well known as a spokesman of the people, had been living in relative solitude in the French countryside, but he returned to Paris to challenge Robespierre's violent rule and call for the people to demand their rights. Robespierre, however, could not accept such a challenge, even from a friend and colleague, and he blocked out a plan for the capture and execution of Danton and his allies.

Danton

1983

The Phantom of Liberty poster
7.5

This Surrealist film, with a title referencing the Communist Manifesto, strings together short incidents based on the life of director Luis Buñuel. Presented as chance encounters, these loosely related, intersecting situations, all without a consistent protagonist, reach from the 19th century to the 1970s. Touching briefly on subjects such as execution, pedophilia, incest, and sex, the film features an array of characters, including a sick father and incompetent police officers.

The Phantom of Liberty

1974

Chinese Box poster
5.8

The story of Hong Kong, from New Year's Day to June 30th, 1997, when the British left their colony and turned it over to the People's Republic of China.

Chinese Box

1997

Cyrano de Bergerac poster
7.3

Famed swordsman and poet Cyrano de Bergerac is in love with his cousin Roxane. He has never expressed his love for her as he his large nose undermines his self-confidence. Then he finds a way to express his love to her, indirectly.

Cyrano de Bergerac

1990

Borsalino poster
6.9

In 1930s Marseilles two small-time crooks decide to join forces when they meet while brawling over a woman. Starting with fixed horse races and boxing matches, they soon find themselves doing jobs for the local gangster bosses. When they decide to go into the business for themselves, their easy-going approach to crime starts to change.

Borsalino

1970

A Faithful Man poster
5.5

Marianne leaves Abel for Paul, his best friend and the father of her unborn child. Eight years later, Paul dies and Marianne returns to Abel. However, things have changed for the both of them and feelings of jealousy surround their new relationship.

A Faithful Man

2018

The Horseman on the Roof poster
6.5

In a time of war and disease, a young officer gallantly tries to help a young woman find her husband.

The Horseman on the Roof

1995

The Bengali Night poster
6.6

Allan is an engineer working in 1930s Calcutta. He is invited to stay with the family of his boss, Narendra Sen which includes his wife, Indira and daughter Gayatri. Gayatri and Allan become romantically involved leading to tragedy.

The Bengali Night

1988

The Monk poster
5.8

Ambrosio is a monk who is sexually tempted by an emissary of the Devil, a young girl in monk's robes. After he has committed numerous crimes, it appears that he will be caught and punished by the Inquisition. Instead, he signs up on the Devil's team and wins his freedom.. and eventually, the papacy.

The Monk

1972