Maurice Pialat

Former painter who made a number of 16mm shorts and spent ten years working in TV before directing his acclaimed first feature, "Me" (1967). A poignant, unromanticized study of adolescence, the film staked out Pialat's concern with the realistic depiction of everyday issues and events. He continued his autobiographical trilogy with "We Will Not Grow Old Together" (1972), an uncompromising account of the disintegration of a marriage, and "La Guele ouverte" (1974), which charts a man's reaction to the death of his mother. Pialat enjoyed international recognition with two films starring Gerard Depardieu, the melodramatic "Lou Lou" (1979), a partially-autobiographical account of the breakup of an affair between two screenwriters, and the fast-paced, violence-riddled "Police" (1985). He took the Palme d'Or at Cannes with the austere religious drama, "Under the Sun of Satan" (1989).