Broca, Philippe de

(1933-2004)

   Actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. Philippe de Broca is well known for his comedies and adventure films. He started as an assistant to director Henri Decoin, and then worked as a documentary filmmaker in Africa, before becoming an assistant director to Claude Chabrol and François Truffaut. De Broca's first feature was Les jeux de l'amour (1960), which won a Silver Berlin Bear for best comedy. This established a fairly long series of critically acclaimed films. His film L'amant de cinq jours (1961) received a nomination for a Golden Berlin Bear. His L'homme de Rio (1964), which starred Jean-Paul Belmondo, received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. Chère Louise (1972) was nominated for a Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. His more recent film, Le Bossu (1997), was nominated for a César for Best Film and a British Film Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

   De Broca also had a fair degree of commercial success. His film Cartouche (1962), starring Belmondo, was a big hit, and most of his films have been quite popular. Other major films by de Broca include Les tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine (1965), Le roi de coeur (1966), Le diable par le queue (1969), Les caprices de Marie (1970), Le poudre d'escampette (1971), Le magnifique (1973), L'incorrigible (1975), Julie pot-de-colle (1977), Tendre poulet (1978), Le cavaleur (1979), On a volé la cuisse de Jupiter (1980), Psy (1981), L'Africain (1983), La gitane (1986), Chouans! (1988), Les 1001 Nuits (1990), Les clés du paradis (1991), Amazone (2000), and Vipère au poing (2004).