René Féret(1945-2015)

René Féret, a true filmmaker from the North of France, the region in which he shot all his films. Born in 1945 in La Bassée, he spent his childhood in the small town of Annequin, where the parish priest, a confirmed film buff, awakened his taste for cinema. Féret was first a theater actor (he later also acted once or twice in his own films). After studying at the Strasbourg School of Dramatic Art, he performed in various theaters in the North of France, including "Le Centre Dramatique du Nord" and Cyril Robichez's "TPF". However, he was more interested in filmmaking and in 1974, with the help of a group of fellow actors and a handful of dedicated technicians, he succeeded in making his first film, the very personal (a constant in his career) "Histoire de Paul". Not owning a penny of his own, Féret achieved his aims against all odds thanks to a sum of money lent by a friend who had inherited it as well as the advance on receipts by CNC. The Paul of the title was in fact René Féret himself who, at the age of 22, had been committed to the psychiatric hospital in Armentières. The new director had managed to transpose that traumatic experience with such talent that he won the 1975 Jean Vigo Prize. From then on, René Féret's career unfolded with regularity, obstinately inscribed in his native region, often autobiographical ("La Communion solennelle" in 1976; "Baptême" in 1988), sometimes in costume ("Nannerl", the story of Mozart's sister played by his own daughter Marie, in 2010), always sincere and as far away from any kind of fashion as can be. The producer of his own films, a precious guarantee of freedom, he also financially supported a few demanding directors such as René Allio or Robert Guédiguian. From 1995 and for fifteen years he taught cinema at the University of Lille 3 Active till the end, this great artist unfortunately died in 2015 at the premature age of 69 following a long illness.