He had started filming small roles in the 1940s. But it was in the 1960s that Michel Piccoli, who died on Monday at the age of 94, established himself as a great figure in French cinema. Overview of its biggest films, more or less easy to find on streaming and VOD platforms.
"Le Mépris", by Jean-Luc Godard (1963)
But how dare he, Paul? He is married to the most beautiful woman in the world (Brigitte Bardot) and he does not look at her. He avoids it. The mistake. However, their love is obvious in the inaugural scene, absolutely cult. "Do you find them pretty, my butt?" Asks Camille, naked on the bed, to the music of Georges Delerue. "I love you totally, tenderly, tragically," replied Paul. But in this magnificent villa on the island of Capri where they spend their holidays, the feelings disintegrate. Rarely has the narration of the end of an affair been so fiercely told. The final moments before hatred and disgust. In front of the beauty of BB, one could doubt the scenario. It is without counting, on the silences of Michel Piccoli, who say what the words hide. A masterpiece.
"Le Mépris", Franco-Italian drama by Jean-Luc Godard (1963), with Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, Fritz Lang ... 1h45. To see on MyCanal and Lacinetek.com.
"The Diary of a Chambermaid", by Luis Buñuel (1964)
Michel Piccoli toured 6 times with the Spanish master subversive. This adaptation of the eponymous novel by Octave Mirbeau, a denunciation of the faults of the bourgeois and the notables, could only please the actor, deeply committed to the left. Here he plays the role of a frustrated and sexually obsessed father, who harasses his maid, interpreted by Jeanne Moreau. One of the best opus of the Piccoli / Buñuel duo, with "Belle de jour".
"The Diary of a Chambermaid", Franco-Italian drama by Luis Buñuel (1964), with Jeanne Moreau, Georges Géret, Michel Piccoli ... 1h32. Available on VOD.
"The Things of Life", by Claude Sautet (1970)
A beautiful and sad film. Like life. A life that Pierre (Michel Piccoli) flies over a hundred hours. Between his ex-wife and his mistress Hélène (Romy Schneider). Like driving, even on this small departmental road. Too fast, his Alfa Romeo gets off the road and crashes into an apple tree. Pierre's story ends there, under this tree. It could be the end of the film, but that's where it all starts. Because during these few fatal seconds, Pierre sees his life go by in fast motion. Smiles, tears, disappointments, captured with delicacy by Claude Sautet. Of course there is Romy Schneider, radiant, especially when she begins to sing the unforgettable "Chanson d'Hélène". But the director films Michel Piccoli with as much love as his heroine. Piccoli is Sautet's alter ego. A fragile and solid shoulder at the same time. A beautiful story of friendship. Sautet will call on Piccoli for his next four films.
"Les Choses de la vie", Italian-French-Swiss drama by Claude Sautet (1970), with Michel Piccoli, Romy Schneider, Léa Massari ... 1h28. To see on MyCanal and Lacinetek.com.
"La Grande Bouffe", by Marco Ferreri (1973)
Four disgusted friends of life decide to feast greedily until death ensues. Huge scandal at the time of its release, booed during its presentation at the Cannes Festival, this film, today become totally cult, constitutes a virulent criticism of the consumer society, which was only wrong to arrive too early . Michel Piccoli responds to a fine selection of actors: Philippe Noiret, Marcello Mastroianni, Ugo Tognazzi and André Ferréol.
"La Grande Bouffe", Franco-Italian dramatic comedy by Marco Ferreri (1973), with Marcello Mastroianni, Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Piccoli ... 2h02. To see on Lacinetek.com.
"Vincent, François, Paul et les autres", by Claude Sautet (1974)
"Fuck you all with your Sundays and your cunt legs!" Yells Piccoli in one of the most famous anger in French cinema. The famous "leg of the leg" where this band of childhood friends who spend all their weekends in the countryside will explode like a puzzle. These happy thirties in whom everything was successful enter their fifties with turbulence. Even adoption, family is never easy. Vincent, François and Paul seem like brothers unable to communicate. And seem to discover that friendship does not prevent resentment. Alongside Yves Montand, Serge Reggiani and the others (Gérard Depardieu, Stéphane Audran, Marie Dubois, etc.), Michel Piccoli's silent carcass hovers over this immense film.
"Vincent, François, Paul et les autres", French dramatic comedy by Claude Sautet (1974), with Yves Montand, Michel Piccoli, Serge Reggiani ... 1h53. To see on Lacinetek.com and with VOD services, and this Tuesday evening at 11:15 p.m. on France 2.
"Sept Morts sur ordinance", by Jacques Rouffio (1975)
Ten years apart, two brilliant surgeons working in the same clinic committed suicide. The film parallels their tragic destinies, the two notably confronting a family clan at the head of the establishment. At the height of his art, Michel Piccoli plays one of these two practitioners prey to conformism, nepotism and backbiting, in this film directed by Jacques Rouffio, who will use him three years later in another shocking work, " sugar ".
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"Sept Morts sur ordinance", Franco-Spanish drama by Jacques Rouffio (1975), with Michel Piccoli, Gérard Depardieu, Jane Birkin ... 1h46.
"La Passante du Sans-Souci", by Jacques Rouffio (1982)
Reunion again with Jacques Rouffio, but also with Romy Schneider. It is she, of course, who lives in her presence this film, the actress's ultimate role before the accidental death of her son and her suicide in 1982. We therefore remember her a lot, less than Michel Piccoli who plays here a Jew martyred as a child during the war and who takes justice into his own hands by killing a former Nazi hidden in Paraguay. An overwhelming and committed film.
"La Passante du Sans-Souci", Franco-German drama by Jacques Rouffio (1982), with Michel Piccoli, Romy Schneider, Helmut Griem ... 1h56.
"The Danger Price", by Yves Boisset (1983)
An unemployed worker at the end of the line decides to participate in a televised game, during which he must escape from several killers chasing after him. Prophetic denunciation of the excesses of reality TV, the film, supposed to take place in a future that has never seemed so close to us, benefits from the presence of Michel Piccoli, unscrupulous presenter and manipulator. He is here surrounded by Gérard Lanvin and Marie-France Pisier.
"Le Prix du danger", a Franco-Yugoslav drama by Yves Boisset (1983), with Gérard Lanvin, Michel Piccoli, Marie-France Pisier ... 1h40. Available on VOD.
“Habemus papam”, by Nanni Moretti (2011)
Almost premonitory film. Two years before the extremely rare resignation of Benedict XVI, Michel Piccoli, then an icon of cinema, plays a cardinal named pope during a conclave. A role for its excess? Not really, since when entering the famous balcony which overlooks the Place Saint-Pierre, Cardinal Melville refuses to show his head. The habit is too imposing. And the still unknown pope is depressed. We send him a psychoanalyst, but the cardinal prefers to run the English way for an invigorating ballad at the Vatican. A giant who doubts, this will be the last first role of Michel Piccoli.
"Habemus papam", Franco-Italian dramatic comedy by Nanni Moretti (2011), with Michel Piccoli, Nanni Moretti, Jerzy Stuhr ... 1h42. Available on VOD.
