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Wednesday, May 20, 2020 Lifestyle Features

In this file photo taken on May 24, 1982, French actor Michel Piccoli (left) In this file photo taken on February 17, 1971, actors Michel Piccoli and In this file photo taken on April 4, 1976, (from left) French actors Serge and French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard pose prior to the screening of leave after the screening of “” by Reggiani , Romy Schneider (center) and Michel Piccoli pose during the “Passion” during a . , in . Cesars ceremony (award for French movies or actors). French screen legend Michel Piccoli dead at 94

ichel Piccoli, one of the most origi- festival, who led the tributes to a man who he Grande Bouffe”, in which a group of male Mnal and versatile French actors of said was “as indispensable to as friends shut themselves up in a house with the last half century, has died aged water, sun and wind”. prostitutes and try to eat themselves to In this file photo taken on May 13, 2011, French actor 94, his family said Monday. He died “in the death. Michel Piccoli poses on the red carpet before the arms of his wife Ludivine and his children Actor and activist screening of “Habemus Papam” presented in competi- Inord and Missia after a stroke”, the family With his bald forehead, vast eyebrows ʻI donʼt put on an actʼ tion at the 64th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes. told AFP. Piccoli — who passed on May 12 and sly grin, he hopped easily from seducer “I do not put on an act... I slip away — starred in a string of classics which rede- to cop to gangster to pope, with a particular behind my characters. To be an actor you fined world cinema, from Luis Bunuel’s “Belle predilection for ambiguous and cynical roles. have to be flexible,” Piccoli said. In a career de Jour” and “The Discreet Charm of the Yet despite his omnipresence, with Bunuel stretching over 150 films Piccoli worked with Bourgeoisie” to a typically memorable turn alone casting him in six of his films, Piccoli some of cinema’s greatest directors including opposite in Jean-Luc never won a French Oscar — the Cesar — , , , Godard’s “Contempt” in 1963. Bardot said despite being nominated four times, includ- Jean-Pierre Melville, , Agnes that though she and the left-wing Piccoli ing for ’s last film “Milou in May” Varda and Claude Sautet, as well as Bunuel, were polar opposites politically, they shared and ’s “” in Godard and Malle. Born into a family of great “mutual esteem”. “He had humor and 1991. He did, however, win best actor at musicians of Italian origin, his last major role talent,” she told AFP. “And he liked my back- Cannes in 1980 for playing a tortured Italian was in ’s “We Have a Pope” in side,” she added cryptically. judge in ’s “A Leap in the 2011, where he played a pontiff crippled by A masterful performer with a wickedly Dark” and the following year shared best panic attacks. malicious edge, Piccoli managed to carve out actor at the Berlin festival for “Une etrange He was married three times, first to a hugely prolific career as both an arthouse affaire”. actress Eleonore Hirt, with whom he had a This file photo taken in icon and a kind of French Cary Grant. Like Piccoli was a life-long activist and former daughter, then for 11 years to the singer 1976 shows a portrait of Grant and other Hollywood all-rounders communist who counted the philosophers Juliette Greco and finally to writer Ludivine French actor Michel Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper, Piccoli was and Jean-Paul Sartre Clerc. Right up to his late 80s, he never Piccoli. able to adapt himself to virtually any material among his friends, but that did not stop him stopped acting, writing and directing, both without altering his essential everyman raging against repression in the old Eastern for stage and screen. “Age is very important screen persona. Emmanuel Macron called Bloc and supporting the Polish trade union, for normal people,” he told the French daily Piccoli a “giant” in the industry who, with Solidarity. Its struggle was one of a long list Liberation in 2000. “Let’s try to be immortal, “his immense power of metamorphosis,” was of causes he supported. Having witnessed it is so much more fun.”—AFP “the most complete and most eclectic actors Jews being rounded up in occupied Paris as In this file photo taken on December 19, 1966, French in French cinema,” according to a statement a teenager, he could not bear people to say actor Michel Piccoli and French singer and actress from the French presidency. “You did not that “they did not know” about the suffering Juliette Greco hold each other’s hands during their direct Piccoli. You filmed him,” said Gilles of others. One of his best known films out- honeymoon, near Paris.—AFP photos Jacob, the former head of the Cannes film side France was ’s 1973 “La

French cinemas get heated Eilish files over lockdown drive-in restraining rench cinema owners are up in head of BAC Films, one of Europe’s Farms because a drive-in film festi- leading independent film production order against val is beating the country’s lock- companies, said that they “simply want- down while they are forced to stay ed to give people a chance to experi- closed. They are angry at a travelling ence some culture during confinement” alleged stalker

drive-in film festival which began in the and that the festival was not a money- illie Eilish has filed for a restraining order southwestern city of Bordeaux this making venture. He said that the festival against an alleged stalker. The 18-year-old weekend, and which is set to cross the relied on 35 volunteers to help stage it B singer reportedly filed the documents with the country showing a mixture of arthouse and was always meant to be temporary. help of legal firm McPherson Ltd, where she alleged films and crowd-pleasing French hits. He said it would stop showing the a man named Prenell Rousseau has been visiting her The federation of French cinema owners Oscar-winning South Korean film, house on multiple occasions. According to TMZ, the (FNCF) said that the festival and a “Parasite” and French films “Sink or 24-year-old man began showing up last Monday , plethora of other outdoor projections Swim” and “Invisibles” when cinemas Friends reunion special on HBO Max when he rang the doorbell and spoke to Billie’s father were leeching audiences away when were allowed to reopen. But the FNCF through the Ring camera set up she has outside her “local and national authorities should be has demanded that the authorities house. In the papers, Billie says her father asked if he concentrating on battling to reopen cin- enforce lockdown restrictions to the let- could be filmed ‘at the end of summer’ could help the man, to which he responded: “I think I emas”. The drive-in festival gets around ter on the festival, which is due to travel might have the wrong house, but does Billie Eilish live French coronavirus social distancing to the southern city of Marseille later he ‘Friends’ reunion special could for a month or two at the most, and now here?” Billie’s father told Prenell he had the wrong restrictions by having the audience stay this month, before moving to northern be filmed “by the end of the sum- it seems like it’s going to be far longer T house, but the man allegedly showed up again later in in their cars to the watch the films. France. “There is no reason why these mer”. The stars of the hit sitcom - than that. We’re holding out for being the day, and the ‘Bad Guy’ hitmaker claims he began Although the lockdown in France was initiatives should escape the rules and Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David able to get this special done hopefully to exhibit “erratic behaviour”. relaxed somewhat last week, restrictions put spectators and staff in danger,” it Schwimmer, Matthew Perry, Lisa by the end of the summer, if the stars She wrote in the papers: “While we waited for remain tight in a large swathe of the added. The federation also called for a Kudrow, and Matt LeBlanc - were due align and hopefully we can get back into security, Mr. Rousseau remained on our porch, sat country including the capital Paris. ban on all outdoor film screenings until to reunite for a one-off reunion for HBO production. We do think there’s a value down and began to read a book, while also continu- While most shops have reopened, there after the pandemic, saying it was Max later this month, but the project to having a big, raucous live audience to ing to engage in a periodic monologue. My father is little prospect of cinemas opening “impossible to guarantee people would was delayed indefinitely due to the experience these six great friends com- repeatedly asked him to leave, but he refused.” their doors till at least July. And even self-distance properly at these gather- coronavirus pandemic. And now, ing back together and we didn’t want to Security shooed him away, but he allegedly returned then it will be with social distancing ings.” Meanwhile, with the world’s WarnerMedia Entertainment and just suddenly do it on a web call with, a little while later and laid down behind a wall, ready measures that could mean that screen- biggest film festival in Cannes cancelled Direct-to-Consumer chairman Bob you know, six squares and people to spend the night. ings may have to be up to three-quar- because of the virus, the Riviera resort Greenblatt has confirmed production is shooting from their kitchens and bed- Prenell allegedly reappeared on last Tuesday and ters empty. is trying to keep the festival spirit alive set to go ahead in the summer, as long rooms.”—Bang Showbiz began trying the door handle to gain entrance. Billie with drive-in screenings of its own in a as lockdown measures have been lifted claims the man showed up a total of seven times over Cannes drive-in car park looking out on the in time. Speaking to Variety, he said: “At the past week, and on top of safety concerns, she is But the organizers of the Drive-in Mediterranean later this week.—AFP first we thought, shows will be delayed also said to be worried about the possibility of Festival told AFP that they were not try- Prenell carrying coronavirus. The ‘Ocean Eyes’ singer ing to take the bread from cinema own- says Prenell only wore a face mask on two visits to ers’ mouths. Mathieu Robinet, a former Vienna Philharmonic says no her house, and he pulled it down whilst talking to security. Billie also claims he didn’t wear gloves, and so could potentially have spread the virus to her increased virus risk for orchestras doorbell and doorknob, which could then be touched by members of her family.—Bang Showbiz ienna’s prestigious Philharmonic there was no observable change in how VOrchestra said Monday that a far the breath travelled between playing study into how far musicians’ or being at rest. breath travels when playing instruments The study concluded that there was showed they faced no added risk of no increased risk for musicians playing transmitting the novel coronavirus when together in an orchestra as long as they performing. The orchestra’s musicians observed at least a metre’s distance Billie Eilish took part in an experiment involving from each other. Since mid-April devices being inserted into their noses Austria has been loosening its coron- which made a fine mist visible when avirus lockdown in stages and from the they breathed. The experiment estab- end of May, theatre and music perform- lished that “we should not expect air ances will be permitted for audiences of exhaled by an artist to reach more than up to 100 people. From July 1 the limit 80 centimetres’ distance,” according to will go up to 250, with cinemas also set a statement from the orchestra sent to to re-open.—AFP Spectators in their vehicle attend a drive-in movie screening of Hippocrates by AFP on Monday. This maximum dis- French director Thomas Lilti, on Place des Quinconces in Bordeaux , as part of the tance of breath droplets was emitted by Drive-in Festival.—AFP flute players while for the string section