Claude Lelouch's passion for the seventh art began while hiding out in cinemas during the Occupation. In 1957, while working as a news cameraman, he went to Moscow to secretly film moments of life in the USSR. While on assignment, Claude Lelouch stumbled into the Mosfilms studios, on the set of the film that gave him a taste for directing: Mikhaïl Kalatozov's “Quand passent les cigognes”.

In 1960, he shot his first feature film, “Le propre de l'homme”, which was a critical and public flop. With his earnings from making hundreds of scopitones (the forerunner of the music video) and advertising films, he financed a few unsuccessful feature films... 1966. “Un homme et une femme”, starring Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant, won him a Palme d'Or at Cannes, two Oscars and forty international awards.

Carried off to triumph, then booed on the Croisette, crowned in Hollywood, Claude Lelouch alternated successes and failures as he pursued his idea of cinema, making “a popular auteur cinema”. In almost 60 years, Claude Lelouch made some 50 films.

In 2018, Claude Lelouch reunites with Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant in “Les plus belles années d'une vie”, the epilogue to his film “Un homme et une femme”. As in 1966, the music is composed by Francis Lai, his favorite composer. The film will be presented at the Cannes Film Festival (official selection, out of competition) in 2019.

He was one of our special guests this year for a conversation moderated by Frédéric Maire (Director of the Cinémathèque Suisse) following the screening of his film “Les Uns et les Autres” on Saturday March 9 at Le Capitole.

Director Claude Lelouch was present after the screening of his film “Les Uns et les Autres”. Watch his conversation with Frédéric Maire (Director of the Cinémathèque Suisse) and his interview on our YouTbe channel.