Claude Sautet

Claude Sautet (23 February 1924 – 22 July 2000) was a French film director and screenwriter.

He was a chronicler of post-war French society. He made a total of five films with his favorite actress Romy Schneider.

Born in Montrouge, Hauts-de-Seine, France, Sautet first studied painting and sculpture before attending a film university in Paris where he began his career and later became a television producer. His first movie, Hello Smile! (originally Bonjour Sourire) was released in 1956.

He earned international attention with The Things of Life (Les choses de la vie, 1970), which he wrote and directed, like the rest of his later films. Featuring Michel Piccoli in the male lead, it was shown in competition at the 1970 Cannes Festival. The film also revived the career of Romy Schneider; she acted in several of Sautet's later films. In his next film Max and the Junkmen (Max et les Ferrailleurs, 1971) Schneider played a prostitute, while in César and Rosalie (César et Rosalie, 1972) she portrayed a married woman who copes with the reappearance of an old flame.

Vincent, François, Paul and the Others (Vincent, Paul, François, et les Autres, 1974) is one of Sautet's most acclaimed films. Four middle-class men meet in the country every weekend mainly to discuss their lives. As well as Piccoli, it featured Yves Montand, Gérard Depardieu, and Stéphane Audran. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian in a 2020 tribute article to Michel Piccoli thought it was "arguably the best" of the "five very well-regarded movies" on which the actor and director collaborated. Sautet achieved even further critical success with Mado (1976).