Henry Chapier (14 November 1933 – 27 January 2019) was a French journalist, film critic, television presenter and feature film director.[1]

Henry Chapier
Born
Henri Shapiro

(1933-11-14)14 November 1933
Died27 January 2019(2019-01-27) (aged 85)
Occupation(s)Journalist, film critic, television presenter, film director
Notable creditLe Divan
TelevisionFrance 3 (1987–94)
Websitehenry-chapier.com

Biography

edit

Henry Chapier was born in Bucharest, Romania, the son of an international lawyer and an actress of Austrian descent. He left Romania along with his family in 1947.[2]

Chapier began in 1958 a career as film critic collaborating with the weekly newspaper Arts with François Truffaut. He later became a stringer at L'Express and obtained a prize as best beginner journalist in 1959. The same year he became editor-in-chief of the Culture pages of Combat and was also the film critic of that newspaper until 1974. He got involved in the 1968 controversy over the dismissal of Henri Langlois from the Cinémathèque Française.

At the 1970 San Sebastián International Film Festival, his first film Sex Power won the Silver Shell award for best direction,[3] from a jury that Chapier remembers[4] was presided by Fritz Lang. In 1973, he directed the "semi-experimental" film Amore, with a score by Vangelis Papathanassiou[5] and a screenplay ostensibly by Paul Morrissey & Andy Warhol.[6]

In April 1974, Philippe Tesson created Le Quotidien de Paris and Henry Chapier was the editor-in-chief of the Culture pages. Chapier joined FR3 in 1978 as a film and cultural editorialist. In 1981, he is one of the three editors-in-chief of Soir 3.[7] He later created the television program Le Divan which he hosted from 1987 to 1994.[1] He left France 3 that year and became president of the Maison européenne de la photographie in 1996. The same year, he was a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival[7] after being a member of the jury at the Caméra d'Or in 1988.[8]

Chapier died in his sleep at home in the early hours of Sunday 27 January 2019.[9]

Honours

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ a b "Le journaliste et critique Henry Chapier est mort" [Journalist and critic Henry Chapier is dead]. Le Figaro (in French). 27 January 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  2. ^ "Henry Chapier, animateur du légendaire "Divan", est mort" [Henry Chapier, host of legendary «Divan», is dead]. La Libération (in French). 27 January 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  3. ^ "1970 Awards". San Sebastián International Film Festival website (in Spanish). Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  4. ^ Chapier, Henry (2012). Version originale (in French). Fayard. ISBN 978-2213662688.
  5. ^ Ediriwira, Amar (25 January 2016). "Mythical Vangelis soundtrack Amore surfaces on vinyl for the first time". The Vinyl Factory. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  6. ^ Griffin, Mark J. T. (1997). Vangelis: The Unknown Man. Power of One Ltd. ISBN 978-0952318729.
  7. ^ a b Bornet, Jacky (28 January 2019). "L'animateur de télévision et critique de cinéma Henry Chapier est mort" [Television host and critic Henry Chapier is dead]. France TV Info (in French). Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  8. ^ See: Camera d'Or, Cannes 1988
  9. ^ Rossignol, Aurélie (27 January 2019). "Mort d'Henry Chapier, animateur et critique cinéma" [Death of host and cinema critic Henry Chapier]. Le Parisien (in French). Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  10. ^ "Ordre Nationale de la Légion d'Honneur" (PDF). Journal Officiel de la République Française (in French). 1 January 2017. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
edit