Philippe Claude Alex de Broca de Ferrussac (15 March 1933 – 26 November 2004) was a French film director. He directed 30 full-length feature films, including the highly successful That Man from Rio (L'Homme de Rio), The Man from Acapulco (Le Magnifique) and On Guard (Le Bossu). His works include historical, romantic epics such as Chouans! and King of Hearts (Le Roi de cœur), as well as comedies with a charismatic, breezy hero ready to embark upon any adventure which comes his way, so long as it means escaping everyday modern life: Practice Makes Perfect (Le Cavaleur), The Devil by the Tail (Le Diable par la queue), The African (L'Africain). He had links with the actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, with whom he made six films, as well as with Jean-Pierre Cassel, Philippe Noiret and Jean Rochefort. Philippe de Broca was born on 15 March 1933 in Paris. He was the son of a cinema set designer and the grandson of a well-known painter, Alexis de Broca. He studied at the Paris Photography and Cinematography School (école Vaugirard), graduating in 1953. He carried out his military service with the French Army's service cinématographique des armées (army film service) in Germany and then in Algeria, directing or acting as head cameraman on short films. Greatly affected by the war he witnessed in Algeria, he vowed to show life in its best light in his future films "because laughter is the best defence against upsets in life". After his discharge from the military, he set off on a journey taking in the length of Africa in Berliet trucks before returning to Paris. He began working as an intern with Henri Decoin, before finding assistant positions with Claude Chabrol: Bitter Reunion (Le Beau Serge), The Cousins (Les Cousins), Web of Passion (À Double Tour), François Truffaut: The 400 Blows (Les 400 Coups) and Pierre Schoendoerffer: Ramuntcho. In 1959, Claude Chabrol produced de Broca's first film for him, The Love Game (Les jeux de l'amour) with Jean-Pierre Cassel. De Broca went on to work with Cassel again in The Joker (Le Farceur, 1960), Five Day Lover (L'Amant de cinq jours, 1961), and Male Companion (Un Monsieur de Compagnie, 1964). De Broca's first commercial success came with Swords of Blood (Cartouche), filmed in 1962. This film also saw two more names become associated with de Broca: the actor Jean-Paul Belmondo and the producer Alexandre Mnouchkine. International acclaim came with That Man from Rio (L'Homme de Rio) in 1964, Up to His Ears (Les tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine) in 1965, The Man from Acapulco (Le Magnifique) in 1973 and Incorrigible (L'Incorrigible) in 1975. In 1966, he co-wrote, directed and produced King of Hearts (Le Roi de Cœur). This parody of the Great War, which some cinema-lovers consider his masterpiece, was a commercial and personal failure, to de Broca's dismay. Yet it eventually achieved genuine cult-film status during the mid 1970s when it was presented in repertory movie theaters as well as non-theatrical college and university film series across the United States, eventually running for five years at the now defunct film house, the Central Square Cinemas [2] in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... Source: Article "Philippe de Broca" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.

Filmography

• 2022Belmondo: The Incorrigible
• 2004Viper in the Fist — Director, Writer
• 2003Un amour en kit — Director
• 2003Y aura pas école demain — Director
• 2002Madame Sans-Gêne — Director
• 2000Amazon — Director, Writer
• 1997On Guard — Director, Screenplay
• 1996Le Veilleur de nuit — Director
• 1995Les hommes et les femmes sont faits pour vivre heureux… mais pas ensemble — Director
• 1994Tales from the Zoo — Director
• 1991Les Clés du Paradis — Director, Writer
• 19901001 Nights — Director, Writer
• 1988Chouans ! — Director, Scenario Writer
• 1986The Gypsy — Director, Writer
• 1984Louisiana — Director
• 1983The African — Director, Writer
• 1981Psy — Director
• 1980Jupiter's Thigh — Director
• 1979The Skirt Chaser — Director, Writer
• 1978Dear Inspector — Director, Adaptation
• 1977Julie pot-de-colle — Director
• 1975Incorrigible — Director, Writer
• 1973The Magnificent One — Second Plumber (uncredited), Director, Writer
• 1972Dear Louise — Director
• 1971Le Cinema de Papa — Jean Timent
• 1971Touch and Go — Director, Writer
• 1970Give Her the Moon — Director, Screenplay
• 1969The Devil by the Tail — Un passant suédois, Director
• 1968Don't Play with Martians — Co-Producer
• 1967The Oldest Profession — Director
• 1966King of Hearts — Adolf Hitler, Director, Producer
• 1965Up to His Ears — Director
• 1964Les Pieds nickelés — le chauffeur de taxi
• 1964Male Companion — Director, Writer
• 1964That Man from Rio — Director, Writer
• 1964The Little Misses — Le timide
• 1963People in Luck — Le passant qui reçoit l'affiche (segment "Une nuit avec la vedette"), Director, Writer
• 1962Cartouche — L'homme qui crie 'les aristocrates à la lanterne', Director, Writer
• 1962La Gourmandise — Director
• 1962The Girls of La Rochelle
• 1962The Seven Deadly Sins — Director
• 1961Five Day Lover — Director, Screenplay
• 1961The Joker — Director, Scenario Writer
• 1960Breathless — A Journalist (uncredited)
• 1960The Love Game — L'homme au cabaret Le Bateau Mouche, Director, Screenplay
• 1959Le Beau Serge — Jacques Rivette de la Chasuble, Assistant Director
• 1959The 400 Blows — Homme dans une fête foraine (non crédité), Assistant Director
• 1953Three Dates — Alex, le peintre, Director, Screenplay
• Regarde-moi quand je te quitte — Director
• That Man from Rio — Original Film Writer

Appearances as themselves (14)

• 2020Le Terminus des prétentieux — Self (archive footage)
• 2011Belmondo, il était une fois le beau monde — Self (archive footage)
• 2006The Foreign Eye — Self
• 2002Michel Audiard et le mystère du triangle des Bermudes — Self
• 1996Elle s'appelait Françoise — Self
• Sacrée soirée — Self
• Champs-Elysées — Self
• 1981Droit de Réponse — Self
• Ciné regards — Self
• Les Rendez-vous du dimanche — Self
• Spécial cinéma — Self
• Le Grand Échiquier — Self
• Samedi soir — Self
• Cinépanorama — Self