Rome, 25 April 2024 – Director and French screenwriter Laurent Cantet is dead “this morning in Paris due to illness” at the age of 63. Her agent Isabelle de la Patellière declared this toAfpconfirming the newspaper’s prediction Liberation.
Cantet had won the Palme d’Or in 2008 for the film ‘The Class’ (‘Entre les murs’) and was currently working on a film project, entitled ‘The Apprentice’which was supposed to be released in 2025.
The first film that made him known to the general public was ‘Human resources’ (1999), which won numerous awards including the César Award for best first fiction work in 2001. His works also include ‘Southward’, a 2005 film with Charlotte Rampling which caused a lot of discussion because it dealt with female sex tourism. Presented at the 62nd Venice International Film Festival, its young interpreter Ménothy Cesar wins the Marcello Mastroianni Award as best emerging actor.
The Cannes Film Festival expressed its condolences for the passing, calling Cantet “a relentless humanistwho sought the light despite social violence, who found hope despite the harshness of reality”. His “coherent and humanist work is the stuff of sensitive, profound and socially aware cinema”, added the Festival, defining ‘The Class’ as a film “of disconcerting naturalism”.
