Patrick Grandperret has passed on…

I helped Patrick on his first film on motorcycle competitions and he strongly inspired me for my first feature-length film on the same topic. Patrick did it again with Court circuits and I, twice, with 23h58 and Portrait de groupe avec enfants et motocyclettes. We shared the same curiosity, the same taste for adventure, the search for difference, generosity, solidarity, and the same taste for risk. Death caught up with Patrick who has gone off to join Pons, Rougerie, Léon, Choukroun, Husson, Garnier, Pasolini (the motorcycle driver), Saarinen and so many others, our icons, those inveterate adventurers who lived intense lives and who died, mostly young, like rock stars.

Patrick was a brother to me, I knew that he would be at my side in every difficult situation, he knew that I would always be there for him professionally, affectively and artistically. He was the very incarnation of the independent filmmaker whose references were John Cassavettes and Monte Hellman, he directed great films : Mona et moi, Court Circuits, L’Enfant lion, Les Meurtrières, Fui Banquero all contain unique scenes that touch on the sublime. A former photographer, Patrick directed his films with a particular sensibility for composition and light.

Up to the day before he died, Patrick was correcting exams for the entrance competition for La Fémis, assisted by his wife Yvonne. What better symbol than passing on the baton to the younger generation by this man who was forever young. Like all great creators, like all great actors, beautiful people like Patrick do not die, they just pass on…

(Translated from French by Alexander Baron-Raiffe)

The thumbnail image of this article shows Patrick Grandperret on location of Mona et moi, in 1990 - Photo Bernard Fau