Jacques Perrin has left us…

By Eric Guichard, AFC

par Eric Guichard Contre-Champ AFC n°332

[ English ] [ français ]

Jacques, you’ve gone and joined your partner and our mutual friend Luc Drion, who had left us much too soon, and I am sure that both of you will have impassioned discussions while you watch us muddling about during these difficult times for cinema, for politics, and for the future of planet Earth.

You were so demanding only because you had such great respect for all of the technicians who worked for you. You asked for the impossible, or at least the “possible impossible” and you always pushed us to go further, but you always provided us with the means and especially the time to do so.
All of your films were long-term projects, and the shortest was Seasons, on which your producer, Olli Barbé had invited me to join both you and Jacques Cluzaud, and which only lasted 18 months.

Jacques Perrin sur le tournage des "Saisons" - Photo Sylvain Bardoux
Jacques Perrin sur le tournage des "Saisons"
Photo Sylvain Bardoux

The time you took was your strength, as it allowed you not to re-do, but to perfect.
Your other love was developing new professional tools, using the full spectrum of existing grip equipment, but also stimulating the creativity of the grips and the engineers. Then, they’d imagine, design, and manufacture them at your request. The ultralight aircraft dedicated to Winged Migration, the Thetis head, the torpedo for Oceans, and the scooter on Seasons. I’m forgetting some, I’m sure, and other colleagues who write about you will mention them, too.

Loïc Savouré, à la caméra, et Alexander Bugel, pilotant le scooter des "Saisons"
Loïc Savouré, à la caméra, et Alexander Bugel, pilotant le scooter des "Saisons"

A demanding, curious, obstinate, respectful director ; all of these superlatives will never be enough to express what made you an exceptional producer and director, a man who stopped at nothing to preserve nature, using images and the cinema as your weapon.

Dear Jacques, thank you for everything you’ve brought me in my cinema career !

See you soon.

(Translated from French by A. Baron-Raiffe)