Director Laurent Cantet, Palme d’Or 2008 for “Entre les Murs”, died at the age of 63

The director died on Thursday after an illness, his agent announced.

He won the Palme d’Or in 2008. Director Laurent Cantet died at the age of 63 after an illness, his agent announced to AFP on Thursday (April 25), confirming information from Discharge. He worked on a film project under the title Traineewhich was supposed to be published in 2025.

The Cannes festival reacted immediately, paying tribute to the memory of a “a fierce humanist, who sought light despite social violence, who found hope despite the cruelty of reality”. Film director and screenwriter “whose coherent and humanistic work draws a sensitive cinematography, on the surface of the skin and on the surface of society”, adds the festival. And for Between the wallsMovie “with a disturbing naturalism”.

Born in April 1961, the son of a teacher, Laurent Cantet studied cinematography at the prestigious Idhec school, which he attended at the same time as other future directors, such as Dominik Moll.

His first feature film, Human resources, accomplished 1999 will be a turning point: the camera inserts itself into the daily functioning of the factory, whose social relations are deciphered through the father/son relationship. The film, which marks the debut of Jalil Lespert, wins the César for the best young actor and the César for the best first work.

After the other two feature films, Schedule AND Towards the souththe young filmmaker knows dedication with Between the wallsscreen adaptation of François Bégaudeau’s novel, the story of the daily life of a French teacher at a difficult college located in ZEP.

The writer himself plays the role of a teacher who tries the impossible to motivate his students aged 13 to 15, of different geographical and social origins. The film with a budget of 2.4 million euros was awarded the Palme d’Or at the Cannes festival and will leave its mark.

“Arthur Rambo” based on the Mehdi Meklat affair

Four years after his first big success, Laurent Cantet is coming out Confessions of a girl group, a film adaptation of the novel by Joyce Carol Oates. This drama is about five young girls who founded a gang in 1955 to fight against machismo and men’s control over women.

In 2014, he signed another dramatic comedy, Return to Ithaca, about the Cuban dictatorship. Two years later, he was co-writer and director Workshop with Marina Foïs as the cover, and returns to Cannes with this film about a writing course conducted by a group of young people in integration. “The film reveals a world that is perhaps even crueler than described Between the walls. But at the same time, I hope the film also shows that speech is important. And that young people master it quite well”Laurent Cantet said then.

In 2021, he is shooting his last film, Arthur Rambo, which was inspired by the affair of Mehdi Meklat, a writer who caused controversy after the discovery of a series of racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic tweets published under a pseudonym.

Laurent Cantet worked intensively with Robin Campillo (120 beats per minute), who was its editor before switching to directing. Together with Pascale Ferran and Cédric Klapisch, in 2015 he founded La Cinetek, a film VOD platform edited by filmmakers.