JEAN-PIERRE MOCKY

Written by Michael Darvell
 

(6 July 1929 - 8 August 2019)

mocky.jpg

The French film actor-writer-producer-director Jean-Pierre Mocky, who has died aged 90, was a hard-working filmmaker of nearly 70 films as well as TV work. Born Jean-Paul Mokiejewski in Nice to Polish parents, his father was Jewish, his mother Catholic. They sent Jean-Pierre to Algeria during the Nazi occupation of France by lying about his age. Mocky’s career began as a film and stage actor in 1946, working with Cocteau, Visconti, Fellini, and appearing in Antonioni’s I vinti (The Vanquished, 1953). His first screenplay was an adaptation of Hervḗ Bazin’s novel La tête contre les murs (The Keepers, 1959) for Georges Franju, in which he also appeared, and he often acted in the films he later wrote and directed. His first as director was Les dragueurs (1959) about a couple of shy young men looking for girls in night-time Paris.

Mocky was well-named as his films were often satirical or dealt with unorthodox problems including the loss of virginity (The Virgins) a fight for power (Snobs), splitting up of relationships (A Couple), aristocrats adapting to poverty through theft (Heaven Sent), falsifying important documents (Order of the Daisy), murderous orgies (Solo), real estate swindles (Chut!), and so on. Not all of his films were seen in the UK, although Mocky attracted the cream of the French acting profession, working with the likes of Bourvil, Charles Aznavour, Jacques Charrier, Gḗrard Blain, Jean-Louis Barrault, Fernandel, Jean Poiret, Claude Rich, Michel Serrault, Michel Simon, Philippe Noiret, Marie-Josḗ Nat, Jeanne Moreau, Catherine Deneuve, Stḗphane Audran, Toto and Jane Birkin, etc. From 2007 to 2019 he directed and hosted fifty-two episodes of stories for TV called Myster Mocky prḗsente. His last feature film, Tous flics!, is due to be released in 2020. Jean-Pierre Mocky was married four times and claimed to have fathered seventeen children, his first born when he was 13!

MICHAEL DARVELL

 
Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

Previous

FREDA DOWIE
Next

D.A. PENNEBAKER