French filmmaker Bertrand Blier, winner of an Oscar for best foreign film, dies at 85

French director and screenwriter Bertrand Blier He died this Tuesday at the age of 85, according to ‘Le Figaro’, which describes him as “one of the last giants” of French cinema.

In 1979, the filmmaker won an Oscar for best foreign film for ‘Préparez vos mouchoirs’ (released in Spain as ‘Do you want to be my wife’s lover?’). The aforementioned media highlights that Blier knew how to invent his own cinematographic universe.

Blier was born in Boulogne-Billancourt in 1939. He followed his father’s parents, although he was an actor, and grew up on film sets. At the age of 20 he became John Berry’s assistant in the film ‘Mambo’. He later worked alongside directors such as Gérard Lautner, Delannoy and Christian-Jaque where he learned his profession little by little.

In most of his films, men are victims of “manipulative” women, as ‘Le Figaro’ points out. On up to eight occasions he has directed Gérard Depardieu, currently being investigated for sexual assaults.

In 1974, Bertrand Blier directed ‘Les Valseuses’ (The Ball Breakers), a provocative drift, prohibited for those under 18 years of age, which revealed the director and three actors, Patrick Dewaere, Gérard Depardieu and Miou-Miou.

With his film ‘Préparez vos mouchoirs’, Bertrand Blier established himself as one of the few Frenchmen to win an Oscar, that of the best foreign film, received in 1979. Later, in 1981, he released ‘Beau-père’, titled in Spain as ‘You made me a woman’, based on his own novel of the same name.

His eleventh feature film, ‘Trop belle pour toi’, in which the Depardieu-Bouquet-Balasko trio takes part, received five César awards: best film, best script, best director, best actress (Carole Bouquet) and best editing and the Grand Prix of the Jury at Cannes.