Known for Directing
Claude Barruck Joseph Lelouch (born 30 October 1937) is a French film director, writer, cinematographer, actor and producer. Lelouch grew up in an Algerian Jewish family. He emerged as a prominent director in the 1960s. Lelouch gained critical acclaim for his 1966 romantic melodrama film A Man and A Woman. At the 39th Academy Awards in 1967, A Man and a Woman won Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film. Lelouch was also nominated for Best Director. While his films have gained him international recognition since the 1960s, Lelouch's methods and style of film are known for attracting criticism. Lelouch was born in the 9th arrondissement of Paris to Charlotte (née Abeilard) and Simon Lelouch. His father was born to an Algerian Jewish family while his mother was a convert to Judaism. Lelouch says that his first contact with cinema was very young: "My mother hid me in movie theaters when I was little. We were wanted by the Gestapo. [...] Cinema, for starters, saved my life." Of his personal faith, he says "Today I believe in God. My faith was sparked when I made a film in Israel. Over there, it is impossible not to believe in God. I loved the places of worship of all the religions. Everything which happens is for the best. I sometimes have the feeling that my inspiration comes from heaven. I think it is wonderful to be Jewish." His father bought him a camera as a fresh start after his failure in the baccalaureat. He started his career with a reportage – one of the first to film daily life in the Soviet Union, with the camera hidden under his coat as he made his personal journey. He also filmed sporting events, like the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Tour de France. Lelouch served in the French Army working in the film unit where he made over 100 films. He was demobilized in 1960. His first full-length film as director, Le Propre de l'homme, was decried by the critics: "Claude Lelouch, remember this name well, because you will not hear it again" – Cahiers du cinéma said. La femme spectacle (1963), following prostitutes, women shopping, going for nose-jobs, was censored for its misogynist tendency. A Man and a Woman changed his fortunes and was met with favour even by the Cahiers group. The 1981 musical epic Les Uns et les Autres is widely considered as his masterpiece, and his credits now add up to 50 or so films. His 1976 film, C'était un rendez-vous purportedly features a Ferrari 275 GTB being driven at extreme speed through the streets of Paris at dawn. The entire short is shot from the point of view of the car. Legend has it that Lelouch was arrested after it was first shown publicly. In a 2006 interview, Lelouch stated that he drove his own Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9 in the film and created a soundtrack of the radically different sounding Italian sports car for effect. He collaborated more than two dozen times with composer Francis Lai. They scored a great hit with the theme song for the film A Man and a Woman sung by Nicole Croisille and Pierre Barouh, and more than 300 versions of the song exist. In 1993 he was the president of the jury at the 18th Moscow International Film Festival. ... Source: Article "Claude Lelouch" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
Born
October 30, 1937 (age 88)
Birthplace
Paris, France
Filmography
217 films, 35 shows


At the End of the Day
2024 · 2h 7m
country: France
In an increasingly crazy world, Lino, who has decided to leave everything behind, will come to realise that, at the end of the day, everything that happens to us is for our own good!


Love Is Better Than Life
2022 · 1h 55m
country: France
Upon their release from prison twenty years earlier, Gérard, Ary and Philippe asked themselves if honesty was not the best racket of them all. Today, they are inseparable and scrupulously above board. But Gérard learns he is terminally ill. Their friend’s days being numbered, Ary and Philippe want to offer him one last love story… because, as Gérard likes to say : love is better than life.


Le Grand Rendez-Vous
2020 · 6m
country: France
Remake of the famous short film C'etait un rendez-vous (1976), where Claude Lelouch shows us a Mercedes 450SEL, to the sound of a Ferrari 275 GTB, V-12 engine, which runs through the streets of Paris until the driver finds and gives a kiss on the beloved woman. This first feat without authorization from the city hall of Paris and yielded up to a few hours at the Police Station. This time everything was done within the law. A Ferrari SF90 Stradale, driven by Charles Leclerc, racing through the Monaco Grand Prix circuit, closed to traffic and pedestrians from 6:45 am to 9:00 am.


Dance of Chance
2019 · 1h 30m
country: France
That day, there’s tension in the air: Marianne has her car and dog stolen from a highway parking lot. Stéphane is constantly arguing with his wife. Noémie can no longer stand her husband Aldo’s infidelities. A little-known orchestra performs for the last time…


The Best Years of a Life
2019 · 1h 30m
country: France
They knew each other long ago: a man and a woman whose dazzling and unexpected romance captured in the now-iconic film revolutionized our understanding of love. Today, the former race car driver seems lost in the pathways of his memory. In order to help him, his son seeks out the woman his father wasn’t able to cherish but whom he constantly revisits in his thoughts and dreams. Anne reunites with Jean-Louis and their story picks up where they left it…


Everyone's Life
2017 · 1h 53m
country: France
Before being judges, attorneys, or jury members, they are first of all men and women at a crossroads in their lives, with their dreams and their secrets, their hopes and their limitations, all beneath the same sun, each with their own dark side. In a lovely provincial town, during a jazz festival, life will juggle with their destinies.


Un + une
2015 · 1h 55m
country: France
A successful film composer falls in love when he travels to India to work on a Bollywood retelling of Romeo and Juliet.


We Love You, You Bastard
2014 · 2h 4m
country: France
A war photographer and absent father, who spends more time taking care of his camera than his four daughters, enjoys a happy life in the Alps with his new girlfriend. But his life is turned upside down the day that his best friend tries to reconcile him with his family by telling them a big lie.


D'un film à l'autre
2011 · 1h 44m
country: France
On April 13, 2011, Les Films 13 production company turned 50. How can one celebrate an anniversary of this sort ? By simply making "another" film that would sum up all the earlier ones. D'un film à l'autre is hence a kind of anthology of the films produced Les Films 13 since the 1960s (short and feature films written and directed for the main part by Claude Lelouch), a best-of of half a century of cinema, going from Le Propre de l'homme to What Love May Bring. A biography in images of a filmmaker as admired as he is criticized. In reality, D'un film à l'autre is more than a series of film excerpts, interviews, and making-of documents (some of which possess an undeniable historical value, like that from A Man and A Woman, or the final performances of Patrick Dewaere).


What War May Bring
2010 · 2h
country: France
A theater projectionist's daughter is involved in the Resistance in WWII, but she doesn’t share his political involvement & only believes in passion. She follows the men she loves unconditionally, suffering betrayal and hardship.


To Each His Own Cinema
2007 · 1h 40m
country: France
Commissioned to mark the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, "To Each His Own Cinema" brought together 33 of the world's pre-eminent filmmakers to produce short pieces exploring the multifarious facets of cinema and their perspective on the state of their chosen artform in the early 21st century.


Crossed Tracks
2007 · 1h 43m
country: France
The successful novelist Judith Ralitzer is interrogated in the police station about the disappearance of her ghost-writer. A serial-killer escapes from a prison in Paris. A missing school teacher leaves his wife and children. In the road, the annoying and stressed hairdresser Hughette is left in a gas station by her fiancé Paul while driving to the poor farm of her family in the country. A mysterious man offers a ride to her and she invites him to assume the identity of Paul during 24 hours to not disappoint her mother. Who might be the unknown man and what is real and what is fiction?


The Courage to Love
2005 · 1h 43m
country: France
A picture of humankind in Paris: singers, shows, social gatherings, businessmen, nightclub barmen, bums, shoppers.


Le genre humain - 1ère partie: Les Parisiens
2004 · 1h 59m
country: France
Paris, December 1999. A group of Parisians cross paths. A police commissioner madly in love with his colleague's wife, a director looking for a subject. A man who learns that he has lung cancer. A waitress in love with her boss. A wealthy owner of a pizza chain who falls in love with a former member of the Comédie Française when he wanted to buy her castle. Among them, there is also Shaa. She dreams of becoming a singer and starts a duet with Massimo, a street singer of Italian origin. They quickly fall in love with each other. But one day, a producer spots Shaa and offers her a solo career.


September 11
2002 · 2h 14m
country: France
Eleven directors from eleven countries each contribute an eleven-minute short reflecting on the events of 11 September 2001: A village teacher in Iran tries to explain to her young students what's happened; city kids in Burkina Faso think they've spotted Osama bin Laden; a deaf Frenchwoman in Manhattan writes a Dear John letter to a man who left that morning for work at the World Trade Center; a Chilean remembers Allende; events recall other deaths; a mother endures more than her son's death. Tones vary, as do the locales. Most concern coming to terms with the events of the day, but at least one confronts the viewer with tragedy and death.


And Now... Ladies and Gentlemen...
2002 · 2h 13m
country: France
A jazz singer and a British jewel thief are brought together by their mutual desire to forget the past.


One 4 All
1999 · 2h
country: France
Olivia, Irina and Masha are improving their acting skills. They no longer believe in Prince Charming, and their career is waning. Olivia works at the front desk at the airport and offers a wonderful plan: he would do so that friends will be aboard the Paris - New York plane and will sit next to wealthy men. Their task is to seduce the rich and pull them out of money. But the fraudsters do not suspect that Comissaire Bayard and his young assistant are closely watching them...


Chance or Coincidence
1998 · 2h
country: Canada
Once a successful dancer, Miriam has abandoned her career to bring up her son, Serge, after her boyfriend walked out of her.


Men, Women: A User's Manual
1996 · 2h 2m
country: France
Benoit Blanc loves living, he loves women, he loves daring. He is a famous businessman who suffers from stomach-ache. Fabiolini, a would-be actor, is a policeman and he too suffers from the same sickness. The two man face suffering in opposite ways: Benoit Blanc is optimistic while Fabiolini, always unsure of himself, is persuaded he is seriously ill. The two men meet by chance while doing a gastroscopy and become friends. After having known their real different conditions, they will change and will understand better their lives. Around them, other people, women and men, will see their lives changed, by chance, by love or solely by the life stream.


Lumière & Company
1995 · 1h 28m
country: France
40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were three rules: (1) The film could be no longer than 52 seconds, (2) no synchronized sound was permitted, and (3) no more than three takes.


Les Miserables
1995 · 2h 55m
country: France
In WWII France, poor and illiterate Henri Fortin is introduced to Victor Hugo's classic novel Les Misérables and begins to see parallels between the book and his own life.


All That... for This?!
1993 · 1h 56m
country: Canada
The plot is about a trial against three men who tried to earn loads of money by illegal methods to get to Canada and about the lawyers and the judge who get on with the trial and who are being unfaithful to their couples.


The Beautiful Story
1992 · 3h 30m
country: France
A film with emphasis on visuals and music, the plot concerns characters who meet in present time, mainly the male gypsy Jesus, and the female thief and con-artist Odona, who share parallel experiences from lives 2000 years in the past. These stories are juxtaposed.


Plan-Séquence
1992 · 6m
country: France
In a vertiginous sequence, Claude Lelouch's camera follows Patrick Edlinger climbing with his bare hands one of the routes of the spectacular Cimaï cliff. The action takes place in the Consensus voice (7c+/8a+) at the Cimaï quarry. In a place large enough where Claude Lelouch had been able to take out his crane to make a vertical trip. Later, in 2013, the foot of the Consensus route will experience landslides, the climbing sector has since been prohibited by municipal decree, huge blocks threatening to fall.


The King of Ads
1991 · 1h 31m
country: France
A collection of European T.V. commercials directed by a variety of well-known directors from across Europe and the U.S. Compiled and produced by Jean-Marie Boursicot.


There Were Days... and Moons
1990 · 1h 57m
country: France
How can moon and time affect human mood and fate? In the manner of a Greek tragedy , this movie shows how the chaos of life ineluctably propels its characters towards violence and alienation.


Itinerary of a Spoiled Child
1988 · 2h 15m
country: France
A foundling, raised in the circus, Sam Lion becomes a businessman after a trapeze accident. However, when he reaches fifty and becomes tired of his responsibilities and of his son Jean-Philippe, he decides to disappear at sea. However, he runs into Albert Duvivier, one of his former employees. He comes to realise that he has ignored the important things in his life.


Bandits
1987 · 1h 51m
country: France
On the day Jean Gabin dies, a kidnaper who also takes a fortune in jewels heisted from Cartiers murders Simon Verini's wife. (Simon was fencing the jewels for a youthful gang who robbed Cartiers; he suspects them of the murder.) He's framed for the theft and spends ten years in prison, writing to his daughter, Marie-Sophie, who's 11 when he's sent away. Released, he reconnects to Marie-Sophie and to the young thieves, seeks revenge, and is quickly arrested again. She doesn't know what to make of her father, retreats to her Swiss fiancé, and is flummoxed when one of the young thieves falls for her. Is resolution possible when crime cuts across families and romance?


A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later
1986 · 1h 52m
country: France
Jean-Louis and Anne have had their fling and separated. Now 20 years have passed. He is still dating various women. She is now a big-time director whose most recent film was a very expensive bomb. She comes up with the idea of making a romance based upon her fling with Jean-Louis. She contacts him to gain his permission. Jean-Louis is still in racing and goes away for a desert rally while she begins filming. She finds the mood of their romance difficult to recapture in her film.


Going and Coming Back
1985 · 1h 54m
country: France
Salomé Lerner just finished writing an autobiography. She goes to a TV show called "Apostrophes", hosted by French TV showman Bernard Pivot. Pivot then imagines a film that could be created from her gripping story. A film entirely made of music because after seeing the young pianist Erik Berchot, Salomé believes seeing her long lost brother, who was a musician as well. A brother she had lost along with her parents in 1943. However, the Lerners did in fact escape the gestapo and might have based themselves in Paris...


Long Live Life
1984 · 1h 46m
country: France
The movie starts with an interview with director Claude Lelouch. He pleads viewers not to disclose the plot of the movie after leaving the projection room. Even the movie's trailer shows only a long sequence of faces gazing speechlessly in space. "Like all my movies, this one is about a man and a woman", says Lelouch in the interview.


Edith and Marcel
1983
country: France
This tragic musical drama chronicles the star-crossed love between beloved French singer Edith Piaf and World Middleweight boxing champion Marcel Cerdan who died in a plane crash. The tumultuous affair is paralleled by the love affair of a French POW and his young pen pal who get engaged after writing to each other for four years and having never met. Their romances are framed by the sad, torchy songs of Piaf.


Bolero
1981 · 3h 4m
country: France
The film follows four families, with different nationalities (French, German, Russian and American) but with the same passion for music, from the 1930s to the 1960s. The various story lines cross each other time and again in different places and times, with their own theme scores that evolve as time passes. The main event in the film is the Second World War, which throws the stories of the four musical families together and mixes their fates. Although all characters are fictional, many of them are loosely based on historical musical icons (Édith Piaf, Josephine Baker, Herbert von Karajan, Glenn Miller, Rudolf Nureyev, etc.) The Boléro dance sequence at the end brings all the threads together.
Il a besoin
Il a besoin
1981
country: France


Us Two
1979 · 1h 52m
country: France
Françoise has gone into business seducing men whose wives want to divorce them, and who need incriminating evidence against them. In addition, she has a little blackmail operation going on on the side with politicians who can't afford a scandal. She got started on this business after she was raped, and hasn't looked back since. Now the police are on her trail, and she avails herself of the services of a couple who make a profession of hiding wanted criminals. At the hideout, she meets Simon, a second-generation mobster. As the police close in, Françoise and Simon go on the run together, pulling off occasional heists for operating money. Before long, they have also fallen in love.


Robert et Robert
1978 · 1h 46m
country: France
Robert #1 is played by Charles Denner, while Robert #2 is played by Jacques Villeret. Beyond their common name, the two Roberts are as different as night and day. Oh, there is one more resemblance: both Roberts are lonely, and both hope to meet suitable mates through a computer dating service. As they await the arrival of their new dates, Robert et Robert become fast friends. Of the three favorite film subjects of writer/director Claude Lelouch--romance, crime, and politics--Robert et Robert falls firmly into the first category.


Another Man, Another Chance
1977 · 2h 11m
country: France
Young Jeanne falls in love with photographer Francis, who soon takes her with him when he emigrates to America. In a small town in the still wild west, they build up a small photo shop. Meanwhile, animal doctor David lives on his lonesome farm together with his unlucky wife. It takes years and two tragic accidents until Jeanne and David meet. She has already decided to return to France as soon as possible, but love, and fate, have other plans.


A Second Chance
1976 · 1h 45m
country: France
Imprisoned as an accessory to murder, Catherine gives birth to a son she conceived in prison. Eighteen years later, her sentence served, she is reunited with the boy, Simon, who has remained in an orphanage the entire time. She is accompanied by toothsome prison buddy Sarah, and gradually these people whose lives have been frozen in time "thaw" and get on with the business of living.


The Good and the Bad
1976 · 2h
country: France
The film follows the exploits of Jacques, a car-mechanic turned pro-thief, and his Jewish co-conspirator Simon as their robberies, beginning well before the Second World War, take on a political coloration under the occupation.


Rendezvous
1976 · 9m
country: France
A high-speed drive through the streets of Paris.


Cat and Mouse
1975 · 1h 48m
country: France
A jaded and charming police inspector is assigned along with his cheerful partner to a case involving the mysterious death and/or suicide of a wealthy entrepreneur. The chief suspect is his enchanting wife who was aware that her husband had a mistress. It is also possible that the dead man may be the victim of a radical terrorist group.


Marriage
1974 · 1h 39m
country: France
Four wedding anniversaries serve to chronicle the beginning and end of a thirty-year marriage.


And Now My Love
1974 · 2h 30m
country: France
The movie follows the lives of a woman and a man starting from several generations earlier. The story spans a whole century and several continents.


Visions of Eight
1973 · 1h 50m
country: Germany
Eight acclaimed filmmakers bring their unique and differing perspectives to the 1972 Summer Olympic Games held in Munich. The segments include Lelouch's take on Olympic losers and their struggle to remain dignified even in the face of bitter disappointment and defeat; Zetterling's dramatic exploration of the world of weightlifting; and Pfleghar's piece on young Russian gymnast Ludmilla Tourischev's majestic performance on the uneven bars.


Happy New Year
1973 · 1h 55m
country: France
Released from prison under a New Year amnesty, a criminal tries to pick up the threads of a life changed not only by his daring plan to rob a jewelry store in out-of-season Cannes, but also by a very special someone he met there.


Money Money Money
1972 · 2h
country: France
When they realize the times are changing, five crooks decide to switch from bank robberies to personality abductions.


Smic, Smac, Smoc
1971 · 1h 30m
country: France
Charles, Jean and Amidou are workmen at the La Ciotat shipyards and live in the same construction facility. One day, Amidou leaves them to marry Catherine, a salesgirl. The trouble for Charles and Jean is that going to their friend's wedding means buying new clothes, which is problematic given their low income Moreover, they are determined to make this day an unforgettable one, despite their lack of money. Will they be able achieve their aim?


Iran
1971 · 20m
country: France
Claude Lelouch presents in his own vision of Iran. Between tradition and modernity, the movie reveals all the country's vision contrasts, under the very precise and aesthetic eye of Lelouch: veil and miniskirt, caviar and oil, ancestral Islamic art and the Shah of Iran.


The Crook
1970 · 2h
country: France
A thief known as Simon the Swiss faces up and downs in his criminal profession.


Love Is a Funny Thing
1969 · 1h 55m
country: France
A composer and a French film star, both of whom are married to others, meet and fall in love while shooting a film in the United States.


Life Love Death
1969 · 1h 55m
country: France
François Toledo, married businessman and father, falls head-over-heels in love with Janine, a work colleague. However, he is soon found out: after three dates, he strangles some prostitutes, when, the victim of blackmail, he becomes dishonored. He is taken to court, and sentenced to be killed by a guillotine.


13 Days in France
1968 · 1h 52m
country: France
This colorful documentary chronicles the events of the 1968 Winter Olympics in France. The events made international celebrities of skater Peggy Fleming and skier Jean-Claude Killy for their gold-medal performances. The camera accurately catches the speed of bobsleds and downhill racers and ski jumpers as they race for the gold. President Charles DeGaulle is shown observing the action over 13 days, which saw France earn the best performance to date in the winter games.


Far from Vietnam
1967 · 1h 56m
country: Belgium
In seven different parts, Godard, Ivens, Klein, Lelouch, Marker, Resnais, and Varda show their sympathy for the North-Vietnamese army during the Vietnam War.


Live for Life
1967 · 2h 10m
country: France
Famous TV newscaster Robert Colomb is married to Catherine, but is continually unfaithful to her. Then he meets, and becomes fascinated with Candice.


Les grands moments
1966 · 1h 25m
country: France
Four prisoners are gathered in the same cell. Each tells the others how he got there.


A Man and a Woman
1966 · 1h 42m
country: France
A man and a woman meet by accident on a Sunday evening at their childrens' boarding school. Slowly, they reveal themselves to each other, finding that they have something deeply in common.


For a Yellow Jersey
1965 · 26m
country: France
The film follows the 1965 Tour de France not as a sports documentary but an atmospheric film of the events that surround it. Where riders are shown racing, it is an illustration of the hardship or the danger they face. The main events are the daily routines of the competitors, the bossing about of spectators by officials (which Lelouch emphasises by adding animal noises to the soundtrack), the monotonous days of journalists who follow the race for hours to write only a few hundred words, and the evening entertainment laid on by the Europe-1 radio station.


To Be a Crook
1965 · 1h 40m
country: France
Four young people, tired of working life, decide that they can earn money from crime than they can from work. The film follows their training at the first "crime school", as well as their work.


In the Affirmative
1964 · 1h 25m
country: France
The film is a road movie that follows a middle aged man who gives a young woman a lift. On the car radio, news bulletins warn the population against a recently escaped sadist who is known to prey on young women and children. Lelouch often cuts away from the main story, if only briefly, to parallel events that are not necessarily crucial to the story but illustrate what is suggested by the radio.


Night Women
1964 · 1h 24m
country: France
A mondo-movie on the theme of women, with interviews and mock reports: plastic surgery, transvestites, Victoria Nanquin stripper, divorce and jealousy, dance classes, modeling school, nude modeling, prostitution in the woods, Miss Françoise masseuse, Miss Spaghetti contest.


The Right of Man
1961 · 1h 30m
country: Unknown
At a friend's house, Claude meets Janine. The two young people spend the day wandering around Paris, from the café to the Foire du Trône, together or on their own. An exploration of the construction of a couple from two singularities.


When the Curtain Rises
1957 · 50m
country: Unknown
French film by Claude Lelouch released in 1957. This film was shot illegally in the USSR by the author.


The War of Silence
1957 · 37m
country: France
Short film about the importance of silence in military matters.