Prince in Donkey Skin, painter-poet-sailor seeking his feminine ideal in Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, actor, filmmaker and producer Jacques Perrin died Thursday in Paris at the age of 80. Committed cinema man, the unforgettable actor liked to take and teach others, without being discouraged by storms. Born in Paris on July 13, 1941, Jacques Perrin shot in more than 70 films from the 1950s. Busy all his life in projects around the human, humanism and humanitarianism, the actor released on the screen an eternal youth. Often noticed in the cinema of Jacques Demy and Pierre Schoendoerffer (La 317e section in 1965, Le Crabe-tambour in 1977, L’Honneur d’un captain in 1982), Perrin has also been co-producer of some fifteen films since the end of the 1960s, including Z de Costa-Gavras or Les Choristes by his nephew Christophe Barratier. Director of documentaries with Microcosmos: the people of the grass, but also a white knight of independent production with Le Peuple migrateur and Océans (awarded the César for best documentary in 2011), the defense of biodiversity will have shaped his unique outlook, idealistic and forward-looking. In tribute to Perrin, star of French cinema, a look back at five roles that will have marked his monumental career. The girl with a suitcase by Valerio ZurliniSon of a manager of the Comédie Française and an actress, his career began in Italy in the 1960s. It was on the stage of the Théâtre Edouard-VII that he attracted the attention of Italian filmmaker Valerio Zurlini with his angelic face in Sami Frey’s play, L’Année du bac. The Italian studios immediately appropriated this young actor who, for three years, was one of the most famous young stars of transalpine cinema. Young bourgeois in love with the prol Claudia Cardinale in The Girl with a Suitcase (1960), his friend and master Zurlini will make him a star at only 20 years old. Donkey Skin by Jacques Demy Despite its success on the other side of the Alps, La Nouvelle Vague ignores the actor. Jacques Demy doesn’t care and calls him to play Maxence, the dreamy and loving sailor in Les Demoiselles de Rochefort. Three years later, in 1970, Perrin dons the costume of Donkey Skin Prince, which has become one of the most emblematic roles of his career and of Demy cinema. “As long as in the world we have children, mothers and grandmothers, we will remember them.” (End of the tale of Donkey Skin by Charles Perrault.)Le crabe-drum by Pierre Schoendoerffer The other great director who counted in Perrin’s career is Pierre Schoendoerffer, whom he met in the mid-1960s. films, including La 317e section, in which he played the main role, and Le crabe-drum (1977). In this role of “crab-drum”, the actor will embody, alongside Jean Rochefort, a charismatic soldier taken prisoner in Diên Biên Phu, seeking to see an officer condemned by illness. loved by the general public in Les Choristes, directed by his nephew, Christophe Barratier. Gifted for knowing how to bring people together and for his unfailing tenacity, he has made his acting profession a necessary step in opening up all paths. In the film, the actor embodies this boarder with such special talent who has become an adult.Goliath by Frédéric TellierHis last film role, in Goliath, released in March, echoes his environmental fights: in this thriller about pesticides, he teams up with a formidable lobbyist from the phytosanitary industry, camped by Pierre Niney. Memorable in a good number of films, Jacques Perrin fought with the enthusiasm of a stubborn and optimistic child. One of the most secretive and modest angelic figures of French cinema passed away on April 21.
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