Philippe de Broca

Biography: life and films

Philippe de Broca de Ferrussac was born in Paris on March 15, 1933, into a respectable well-to-do family. Cinephile from an early age, he attended film school before serving in Algeria during his military service. His first work involved making documentaries, some in exotic locations in Africa. In the 1950s, he served an apprenticeship with director Henri Decoin before working as an assistant director with two of the leading figures of the French New Wave, François Truffaut and Claude Chabrol. He made his first film in 1959, the low-budget comedy Les Jeux de l'amour.

De Broca's first significant success was the swash-buckling action-comedy, Cartouche, in 1962. It was the first in a series of major box office hits, which included L'Homme de Rio (1964) and Les Tribulations d'un chinois en Chine (1965). These energetic films, which skilfully combined adventure and madcap farce, often in sumptuous foreign locations, were enormously popular, and not just in France. His 1966 anti-war film, Le Roi de coeur achieved international popularity at the height of the Vietnam War. In the late 1990s, De Broca scored another hit with a lavish historical adventure piece, Le Bossu (1997). More recently, he directed a number of films for French television.

The director was fortunate to have worked with some of the biggest names in French cinema, including Jean-Paul Belondo, Patrick Dewaere, Catherine Deneuve, Daniel Auteuil, Philippe Noiret, Yves Montand and Jean Rochefort. This is a reflection of the quality he managed to bring to mainstream Fench cinema in his films, many of which have become classics of their genre.

Philippe de Broca died from a cancer-related illness in Paris on 26th November 2004, aged 71, not long after the release of his final film, Vipère au poing. He was awarded the Legion of Honour for his extraordinary contribution to French culture.

Filmography