As a
screenwriter, Jean-Claude Carrière is still best known for his association with
Luis Buñuel, with whom he collaborated regularly from Le Journal d'une femme
de chambre onwards. Yet of all his screenplays, only six (or seven if one
counts Le Moine, eventually directed by Ado Kyrou) were written for
Buñuel. To date, Carrière has produced well over 80 screenplays and teleplays
for a long and prestigious list of directors that includes Malle, Schlöndorff,
Wajda, Forman, Godard, Oshima, Philip Kaufman, Carlos Saura, Hector Babenco,
Wayne Wang, and Pierre Etaix. He also writes for the stage (most notably for
Peter Brook's international theater company); he has written novels, and has
occasionally acted and directed.
Top Left :Historic Photo of Film Maestro's in
Hollywood Jean-Claude
Carrière
( with beard), poses with screen legends Alfred
Hitchcock, Rouben
Mamoulian,
Billy
Wilder, Luis
Buñuel, Robert
Wise, William
Wyler, George
Cukor,
Robert
Mulligan, George
Stevens Top Right : Gregory Peck and
Jean-Claude
Carrière. Bottom : Gérard Dépardieu and Carrière in the
spotlights.
Insert: Persian Poet Rumi and Carrières Iranian wife
Nahal Tajadod. ©cinematèque
française
Unlike many prolific scenarists,
though, Carrière rarely lapses into lazy or slipshod writing, and the overall
standard of his work has remained consistently high. Nor, despite his literary
background, does his dialogue feel overwritten or stilted. He himself, while
wary of laying down rules and guidelines, maintains that a screenwriter should
above all aim for clarity and avoid self-indulgence. "Good dialogue doesn't draw
attention to itself," he has observed. "You penetrate it without effort. It's
like the sound of a mill to the miller; he only hears it when it
stops."
Personally I had noticed his name
associated to some of the great French films of the 70's and 80's starring Jean
Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon, Catherine Deneuve, or Juliette Binoche and seeing
him on French TV at the Césars ( French Oscars ) ceremonies either
for being awarded for best screenplay or seeing him reading some
manifesto in favor of some colleague director in some exotic country
imprisoned like Chili, Cuba or Iran for speaking his mind. Without being
necessarily politically motivated Carrière was at the forefront of drawing
public interest in many artists or personalities that were subject to censorship
or human rights abuses. He was also to meet the Dalaï Lama and write a
much publicized book on his meeting with the Tibetan Spiritual Leader.
Some of the classic Award winning movies based on Jean-Claude
Carrière's
screenplays ©imdb.com
As a student in Film at the
University I got to follow several seminars and courses given at Metz and Strasbourg Universities. I was therefore not
surprised when during one of these courses he expressed admiration for the
Iranian New Wave Cinema and for Persian Culture. Little did I know that
this admiration was partly due to the fact that his wife was Persian. Strangely
I had noticed some funny coincidences like when he played a cameo role in a
comic movie Julie pot de
colle directed by Philippe de Broca and with co-stars Jean
Claude Brialy and Marlène Jobert. In a particular scene in the movie ( shot in
Morroco ) the protagonists are in a hotel and one of them mentions that in
Iran they happen to drink a very good
and refreshing drink made with Yogurt called "Dough" . A very
insignificant piece of dialogue in a family film in the lines of Stanley Donen's
Charade. But somehow that piece of dialogue stuck in my movie buff's
selective memory.
Abbas
Kiarostami work With the Wind was translated by Carrière and
Tajadod.
Novel Rumi the Burnt by Nahal Tajadod. ©P.O.L & ©JCLattès
I got to see Carrière last year
during the annual Book Fair at La Porte de Versailles in Paris and I got to see him
in person and speak about films. He did not remember the enthusiastic student
who years ago would often question him in the university auditorium during his
popular Master Classes. I was after all just another anonymous fan lost in the
shadow of his famous and illustrious encounters. The simple fact that I was able
to meet in real life and follow the courses of one of the greatest and most
respected screenwriters and film critics since François Truffaut or Jean Paul
Goddard who was admired by some of the most legendary people in the profession (
see above historical photo with Hollywood's greatest directors) was already a
dream come true. So it was not without some inner anxiety and admiration that I
got to speak to him again and share some of my personal experience and thoughts
on films. I discovered the same enthusiasm and thirst for knowledge in him as I
did nearly 15 years ago when he was a regular speaker at the University. I did
however get to show him some of my writings and the anecdote on that particular
film. That is when he smiled sympathetically and told me that his wife was
Persian and that Iranian Cinema in his opinion was one of the Greatest Cinema's
of the last quarter of the 20th century.
Great Moment for me: meeting Jean Claude-Carrière at the
Salon du Livre ,
2006 at La Porte de Versailles book Expo in
Paris ©Darius KADIVAR
His wife Nahal
Tajadod was born in Tehran, in 1960, in an
educated family and lives in France since 1977 . She has
translated the works of Rumi and also shared with her husband the translation of some literary works
by Iranian film Maestro Abbas Kiarostami. She also wrote a novel based on her
interpretations of the works of Rumi under the title « Rumi Le
Brulé » aka « Rumi the Burnt » . She is also a
researcher at the CNRS the French National Research Center and has published several works on
history.
Now the couple
has just released an Audio CD of translations of the works of the Great Persian
Poet Djalal-e-Din Mohammad Molavi Rumi.
I hope one day
to have the honor of meeting Carrière again and interviewing him on his previous
works and great lesson's on Cinema. In anycase he certainly made my day on that
last meeting. Never could I have imagined that a dialogue on Dough I
noticed in a film some 15 years earlier would lead me to meeting the great film
critic and screen writer again …
VIVE LE
CINEMA !
Author's notes:
Chants d'Amour de Rûmi is available
at: LivreAphone
Recommended
Reading: Le
Film qu'on ne voit pas aka The Film You Don't See by Jean
Claude Carrière an interesting insight into film theory
About the Author: Darius KADIVAR is a Freelance Journalist,
Film Historian, and Media Consultant.
