Gabriel Aghion

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Gabriel Aghion (born December 30, 1955 in Alexandria , Egypt ) is a French film director and screenwriter .

Life

Aghion's ancestors had fled Spain to Italy as Jews and eventually settled in Alexandria, where Aghion was born in 1955. He grew up as the only son in a wealthy family that owned the surrounding cotton fields and ran a school for needy Jews in the Egyptian metropolis. When Aghion was four years old, he and his family moved to Paris , where from then on he lived in much more modest circumstances. He found refuge in a local cinema and at times in the communist youth. He made his first Super 8 films at the age of 14 . An actress who was friends with his mother recognized his talent and finally recommended him to others. In the 1970s and early 1980s, he was employed as an assistant director for filmmakers such as Claude Zidi , Jean-Jacques Seeleix and Willard Huyck . He made his feature film debut in 1983 with the comedy film La Scarlatine , which was inspired by his childhood in Paris and in which Brigitte Fossey and Stéphane Audran took over the lead roles, which, however, like his second film Rue du bac (1991), turned out to be a failure.

In 1996, however, he was the director and screenwriter of Men Like It Hot! book a great success. In France , the gay comedy was the most successful French film of the year with more than four million viewers. The film gave the leading actress Fanny Ardant a César . Aghion himself was nominated for the French film award in the category Best Screenplay , together with Patrick Timsit , who also played one of the leading roles alongside Ardant and Richard Berry .

For the satirical historical film Liebeslust und Freiheit (2000), which, based on a template by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, retells the free-spirited work and frivolous life of the enlightener Denis Diderot , Aghion worked again with Ardant. A year earlier he had also shot the comedy film My Beautiful Mother-in-Law with France's other great star, Catherine Deneuve . In 2001 he was able to win them for a cameo in Absolument fabuleux , his French remake of the British hit series Absolutely Fabulous , in addition to the leading actresses Josiane Balasko and Nathalie Baye . In 2004 Aghion tried with Pédale dure on a sequel to Men Like It Hot , but could not build on the enormous success of the predecessor. Since then he has worked as a director for French television.

Love of the same sex is often a central theme in the films of Aghion, an avowed homosexual .

Filmography (selection)

Director
  • 1978: Vert paradis (short film) - also screenplay
  • 1983: La Scarlatine - also screenplay
  • 1991: Rue du bac - also screenplay
  • 1996: Men like it hot too! ( Pédale douce ) - also screenplay
  • 1999: My beautiful mother-in-law ( Belle maman ) - also script
  • 2000: Love and Freedom ( Le Libertin ) - also screenplay
  • 2001: Absolument fabuleux - also screenplay
  • 2004: Pédale dure - also screenplay
  • 2007: Monsieur Max (TV movie)
  • 2011: Les Belles soeurs (TV movie)
  • 2011: Un autre monde (TV film) - also screenplay
  • 2013: Manon Lescaut (TV movie)
  • 2015–2017: La Vie devant elles (TV series, twelve episodes)
  • 2016: Diabolique (TV movie)
  • 2017: Sam (TV series, six episodes)
  • 2018: Tu vivras ma fille (TV movie)
  • 2019: Classe Unique (TV movie)
  • 2020: Police de Caractères (TV movie)

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. cf. lesgensducinema.com
  2. a b c Hervé Aubron: Gabriel Aghion, 44 ans, cinéaste. Après “Pédale douce”, il essaie, avec “le Libertin”, d'investir le comique libidinal. La quadrature du sexe. In: Liberation , March 15, 2000.
  3. Michael Goodridge: Bonjour, sweetie darling . In: The Advocate , November 20, 2001.