Born in
Montrouge, Hauts-de-Seine, France, Sautet first studied painting and sculpture before attending a film university in Paris where he began his career and later became a television producer. His first movie,
Hello Smile! (originally
Bonjour Sourire) was released in 1956. He earned international attention with
The Things of Life (
Les choses de la vie, 1970), which he wrote and directed, like the rest of his later films. Featuring
Michel Piccoli in the male lead, it was shown in competition at the 1970 Cannes Festival. The film also revived the career of
Romy Schneider; she acted in several of Sautet's later films. In his next film
Max and the Junkmen (
Max et les Ferrailleurs, 1971) Schneider played a prostitute, while in
César and Rosalie (
César et Rosalie, 1972) she portrayed a married woman who copes with the reappearance of an old flame.
Vincent, François, Paul and the Others (
Vincent, Paul, François, et les Autres, 1974) is one of Sautet's most acclaimed films. Four middle-class men meet in the country every weekend mainly to discuss their lives. As well as Piccoli, it featured
Yves Montand,
Gérard Depardieu, and
Stéphane Audran.
Peter Bradshaw of
The Guardian in a 2020 tribute article to Michel Piccoli thought it was "arguably the best" of the "five very well-regarded movies" on which the actor and director collaborated. Sautet achieved even further critical success with
Mado (1976). His film
A Simple Story (
Une Histoire simple, 1978) was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film featured Schneider again, this time as a dissatisfied working woman in her 40s. She won the
César Award for Best Actress for her performance. In the 1980s, he made only two films
Waiter! (
Garçon!, 1983), a drama starring Yves Montand as a middle-aged waiter, and the comedy
A Few Days with Me (
Quelques Jours Avec Moi, 1988). Claude Sautet won the Silver Lion at the
Venice Film Festival and the
César Award for Best Director for
A Heart in Winter (
Un cœur en hiver, 1992) and received the César once more for
Nelly and Mr. Arnaud (
Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud, 1995). Both films starred
Emmanuelle Béart. Apart from his own directing, he also wrote screenplays for other directors. Claude Sautet died of
liver cancer in Paris in July 22, 2000 and was buried there in the
Montparnasse Cemetery. In 2001, from May 5th to July 14th,
Canal Plus aired eleven of its feature films in their final versions, following the work done with Béatrice Valbin. ==Filmography==