On May 18 it was announced that earlier in the previous week, legendary actor and larger than life presence Michel Piccoli had left us, midway through his ninety-fifth year. Such a death is not a tragedy, of course, but like the falling of a mighty, ancient tree, one takes notice of such things. I don’t think there is an analogous American performer (nominations, anyone?) but as a turning of the page it seems similar to that week in 1997 when Jimmy Stewart and Robert Mitchum left the building within a few days of each other—then as now very much a “they don’t make ‘em like that anymore,” moment.
The New York Times obituary summarizes Piccoli as “an actor whose quiet intensity and mature sensuality made him a fixture of French cinema for more than a half-century.” He was also a person who appears to have achieved that highest of ambitions: a rich, full life, well and purposefully lived, the highlights of which are detailed in the Times notice and in this excellent overview and appreciation.
For us there was always something reassuring about Piccoli’s presence in a movie—a confidence that you were in sure hands. (And it turns out we were not alone in this sentiment. The critic Peter Bradshaw described him as “A fierce, strong performer who became the object of cinephile fan-worship.”) Piccoli first came to public notice with a minor but essential role in Jean Pierre Melville’s brilliant noir Le Doulos (1962), which was followed by a breakout performance in Contempt (1963)—possibly our favorite Godard film; soon after he would become even more widely known for his collaborations with Luis Buñuel. And if you can judge an actor by their choices, it is notable that Piccoli also shined in gems from Hitchcock, Chabrol, Demy, Malle, Tavernier, and Resnais, to name a few.
In this brief notice, however, from a seventy-year career (including more than a dozen features made after his eightieth birthday), we will call attention simply to one performance and one partnership. In the former, Piccoli (opposite Jane Birkin and Emmanuelle Béart) portrays the (fictional) artist Edouard Frenhofer in Jacques Rivette’s four-hour masterpiece La Belle Noiseuse. The latter is Piccoli’s five picture collaboration with Claude Sautet (four of which also feature Romy Schneider): The Things of Life, Max and the Junkmen, Cesar and Rosalie, Vincent, François, Paul and the Others, and Mado. With the exception of the exceptional Belle Noiseuse, when we conjure the image of Piccoli in our imagination, it is in the company of Sautet and Schneider.
Michel Piccoli in La Belle Noiseuse
With Yves Montand in Vincent, François, Paul and the Others
Opposite Romy Schneider in Max and the Junkmen
With Jane Birkin in La Belle Noiseuse
The Things of Life