For me Pierre Etaix was a happy discovery. His films are inventive, his characters are delightful, his humour is gentle.
He made his directing debut with Rupture (1961), an 11-minute short in which a man receives a breakup letter from his sweetheart, who sends him back his photo, in pieces. Watch him struggle with the fountain pen, desk, paper, stamps and inkpot as he's trying to reply.
This was followed by Happy Anniversary
(1962), a more elaborate effort in which he tries to pick up flowers
and a bottle of wine to bring home to his wife but has to reckon with
rush-hour traffic and a chronic shortage of parking places. Happy Anniversary was a big success, winning an Oscar award for best short film.
Étaix’s first feature, The Suitor (1962), was a smash hit in France and an art-house success all over the world. Other films received mixed reviews but in my opinion, they're all worth seeing, there's always something to enjoy, to discover, to be surprised at.
Legal disputes with producers however kept his films out of distribution for over thirty years. In 2009, a petition signed by 56,000 people (including Woody Allen, Jean-Luc Godard, and David Lynch) led to the restoration of his films to the public view.
He made his directing debut with Rupture (1961), an 11-minute short in which a man receives a breakup letter from his sweetheart, who sends him back his photo, in pieces. Watch him struggle with the fountain pen, desk, paper, stamps and inkpot as he's trying to reply.
Legal disputes with producers however kept his films out of distribution for over thirty years. In 2009, a petition signed by 56,000 people (including Woody Allen, Jean-Luc Godard, and David Lynch) led to the restoration of his films to the public view.
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