Known for Sound
Laurent Petitgirard (born 10 June 1950, in Paris) is a French classical composer and conductor. Laurent Petitgirard was born in Paris on 10 June 1950. He studied piano with his father Serge Petitgirard, a pupil of Alfred Cortot and Yves Nat, and composition with his older brother Alain Kremski (Kremski being their mother’s name). He has composed over twenty works of symphonic music, operas, ballets, chamber music and nearly one hundred and forty scores for film and television, in a style that is “always refined, dramatic and precisely tailored to the images”. He notably wrote the music for several films by Francis Girod and the 1991 Maigret television series. He also composes lyrical works. His first opera, Joseph Merrick dit Elephant man, with a libretto by Éric Nonn, premiered in 2002 at the Prague State Opera, under the direction of Daniel Mesguich. A new production of this opera was presented in 2005 at the Minneapolis Opera, directed by Doug Varone. His second opera, Guru (commissioned by the State), based on a libretto by Xavier Maurel, explores the subject of mental manipulation. It was recorded in Budapest for the Naxos label in October 2010 under the composer’s direction and premiered on 28 September 2018 at the Castle Opera in Szczecin (Poland) in a staging by Damien Cruden, with Laurent Petitgirard conducting, and starring Hubert Claessens, Paul Gaugler and Sonia Petrovna. A new production of Guru was presented under the composer’s direction from 24 to 28 February 2024 at the Opéra de Nice, staged by Muriel Mayette-Holtz. Recordings of his three concertos, performed by Augustin Dumay, Gérard Caussé and Gary Hoffman, of his six symphonic poems and of the complete version of Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, with the orchestra and chorus of the Opéra national de Bordeaux, are available on the Naxos label. The music he composed for Sonia Petrovna’s production of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince was recorded for the Naxos label in August 2013. His latest work is a ballet based on Si Yeou Ki (“Journey to the West”) for Chinese choreographer Whang Yabin (Naxos CD released in April 2023). This work, performed by the Wang Yabin Company, premiered on 29 April 2024 in Beijing and has since been presented all over China (it was performed in France in December 2018). His concerto for oboe and orchestra Souen Wou K’ong was first performed in Edinburgh and Glasgow in March 2022 with François Leleux and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. His trio “La Croisée des Arts” will premier in Madrid in October 2024, played by the Trio Wanderer. ... Source: Article "Laurent Petitgirard" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
Born
June 10, 1950 (age 76)
Birthplace
Paris, France
Filmography
29 films, 9 shows


The Keys to Freedom
2025 · 5m
country: Germany
To mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, Wim Wenders shot a short film that takes us to the most secret place in Europe at that time: a map room in a school in Reims, France, which served as a war room for the Allies. On May 7, 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered there and the world war ended.


Signé Dumas
2021
country: France


John Rabe
2009 · 2h 14m
country: Austria
A true-story account of a German businessman who saved more than 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing massacre in 1937-38.


Hunting Down the Nazis
2007 · 1h 26m
country: France
For the first time, a film recounts the story of the long pursuit of Nazis in hiding from 1945 to the present day. Sixty years of investigations, set-backs trials and dramas, brought about principally by three extraordinary individuals—the Austrian Simon Wiesenthal, and the German-French couple, Beate and Serge Klarsfeld.


A Perfect Friend
2006 · 1h 46m
country: France
"Julien Rossi wakes up in a hospital bed and finds he has no memory of the events that left him in a coma in the early hours of New Year's Day. Was he attacked? Or was his head injury caused in an accident? This is only the first of many mysteries Julien has to resolve. Who is Marl?ne, the beautiful woman who claims to be his girlfriend? Why doesn't his real girlfriend, Anna, return his calls? What made him walk out on his job as a leading investigative reporter? Julien relies on Lucas, his best friend and


Quasimodo d'el Paris
1999 · 1h 40m
country: France
The location is the town of El Paris. When ten-year-old boy Quasimodo shows signs of deformity, his well-to-do parents place him in the charge of the town’s mysterious evangelist, Frollo. In exchange, they adopt a Cuban girl, Esméralda, from a lower social class. Ten years later, El Paris is menaced by a serial killer, and Quasimodo is the prime suspect.


Terminale
1998 · 1h 40m
country: France
Just before taking an irrevocable and tragic step, Caroline talks to Claire, her lycée friend. Later, Claire gathers five other school friends, and tells them Caroline's secret. The six agree to wage a guerrilla war against their philosophy teacher, the sarcastic and belittling M. Terrien, the cause of Caroline's despair. After seeking advice from Mayard, the school's guidance counselor and a leftist with a police record, the six look for evidence that could get Terrien fired. They strike gold, and then raise the stakes. Sarah, one of the six, hatches a deadly plan.


Bonjour Tristesse
1995 · 1h 31m
country: France
Cécile is a decadent young girl who lives with her rich playboy father, Raymond. Anne, a mature and cultured friend of Raymond's late wife, arrives at Raymond's villa for a visit.


La Classe américaine
1993 · 1h 12m
country: France
George Abitbol, the classiest man in the world, dies tragically during a cruise. The director of an American newspaper, wondering about the meaning of these intriguing final words, asks his three best investigators, Dave, Peter and Steven, to solve the mystery. (Sixteen French actors dub scenes from various Warner Bros. films to create a parody of Citizen Kane, 1941.)


The Elegant Criminal
1990 · 2h 5m
country: France
On 9 January 1836, Pierre Lacenaire goes to the guillotine, a murderer and a thief. He gives Allard, a police inspector, his life story, written while awaiting execution. He also asks Allard to care for Hermine, a lass to whom he has been guardian for more than ten years. In flashbacks, from the prison as Lacenaire writes, from Allard's study as he and Hermine read, and from other readers' memory after the book is published, we see Lacenaire's childhood as he stands up to bullies, including priests, his youthful thieving, his first murder, his brief army career, his seduction of a princess, and his affair with Avril, a young man who dies beside him.
Le Billard écarlate
Le Billard écarlate
1990
country: France


Asphalt
1981 · 1h 40m
country: France
Heavy traffic in the summer. Bad luck for Juliet, Albert, Jaeger and Arthur who does not reach their destination. Involved in a terrible accident that will change their lives forever.


Night of Death!
1980 · 1h 34m
country: France
When she takes up her new post at an eerie convalescent home deep in the French countryside, nurse Martine soon discovers that several missing co-workers may have fallen prey to an unspeakable evil rumored to roam the hallways at night. But as Martine looks deeper into the mystery, she suspects the home's aged residents know more about the menace than they let on.


The Devil in the Heart
1976 · 1h 45m
country: Unknown
It takes place in a chic milieu, where both the father and the son are in love with the au pair girl (but she sleeps with the dad). The young student is far from the post May 68 clichés and the movie walks a fine line off the beaten path. Philippe Lemaire and Emmanuelle Riva are ideally cast as the bourgeois parents who urge their offspring to attend the grandma's Christmas meal.


Rosebud
1975 · 2h 7m
country: United States
In a bold coup a Palestinian terrorist group captures the yacht Rosebud and kidnaps the millionaires five daughters on it. At first they demand film clips to be shown on major European TV stations. Undercover agent Martin is hired to hunt the terrorists down.


A Police Officer Without Importance
1973 · 1h 37m
country: France
Camille, Dov and Joëlle live on the edge of society and are involved in petty theft helping them to buy their drug doses and to survive as best they can. One day, while attempting to rob a movie theater, they activate the alarm signal and it is Pierre, Camille's brother, who is doing a heist in the same building, who is arrested red-handed. The three young people decide to kidnap a police officer and exchange him for Pierre.