Barbet Schroeder

1.1. Birth and Family Background

Barbet Schroeder was born on 26 August 1941 in Tehran, Iran. His mother, Ursula, was a German physician, and his father, Jean-William Schroeder, was a Swiss geologist. From the ages of six to eleven, Schroeder lived in Colombia due to his father's work. Following his parents' divorce, he moved to France with his mother at the age of eleven, where he was raised. His maternal grandfather was the renowned German psychiatrist Hans Prinzhorn.

1.2. Education

Schroeder pursued his academic studies in France, attending the prestigious Lycée Condorcet and Lycée Henri-IV to obtain his Baccalauréat. He then studied philosophy at the Sorbonne (University of Paris). During his early engagement with cinema, he contributed to the influential film criticism journal Cahiers du Cinéma, which was closely associated with the French New Wave movement.

2.1. Founding Les Films du Losange and Early Production

In 1962, at the age of 21, Barbet Schroeder co-founded the influential production company Les Films du Losange in Paris, France, with director Éric Rohmer. This company became a pivotal force in the French New Wave, producing some of its most renowned films. Among their early productions were Rohmer's The Bakery Girl of Monceau (1962), which initiated Rohmer's "Six Moral Tales" series, and the omnibus film Six in Paris (1965), featuring segments directed by prominent New Wave figures such as Jean-Daniel Pollet, Jean Rouch, Jean Douchet, Éric Rohmer, Jean-Luc Godard, and Claude Chabrol. Schroeder also served as an assistant director for Godard's Les Carabiniers (1963) and Rohmer's Suzanne's Life (1963). Other notable films produced by Schroeder include Rohmer's Love in the Afternoon (1972) and The Marquise of O (1976), as well as Jacques Rivette's Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974) and Raúl Ruiz's Shattered Image (1998).

2.2. Directing Career

Schroeder's directorial work is characterized by a diverse range of genres and a consistent engagement with complex human and societal themes, evolving from counter-cultural narratives to mainstream thrillers and critically acclaimed documentaries.

2.3. Acting Career

Beyond his work as a director and producer, Barbet Schroeder has also had a notable acting career, appearing in a variety of films across different genres and directors. His roles often include distinctive character parts.

He played one of the 'ghosts' in Jacques Rivette's Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974), a film he also produced. He appeared as a car salesman in Éric Rohmer's The Bakery Girl of Monceau (1963) and as Jean-Pierre in Jean Rouch's segment "Gare du Nord" in Six in Paris (1965). Other early acting credits include Gian-Reto in Rivette's Out 1 (1971) and Out 1: Spectre (1972), Vittorio in Roberta (1979), and an uncredited guest at dinner in La Mémoire courte (1979).

In the 1990s, he had a cameo as a man in a Porsche in John Landis's Beverly Hills Cop III (1994) and an advisor in Patrice Chéreau's La Reine Margot (1994). He notably portrayed Maurice, the French President, in Tim Burton's science fiction comedy Mars Attacks! (1996).

His later acting roles include a hair products salesman in Christopher Doyle's "Porte de Choisy" segment of Paris, je t'aime (2006), the Duc de Grandlieu in Jacques Rivette's The Duchess of Langeais (2007), and The Mechanic in Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited (2007). He also appeared in Ne fais pas ça! (2004), Une aventure (2005), L'avocat (2011), and Le grand soir (2012). His final film role was as Le médecin in Portrait of the Artist (2014).

2.4. Television Work

Schroeder's television contributions include directing an episode for the critically acclaimed American dramatic series Mad Men. He directed "The Grown Ups," the twelfth episode of the third season, which first aired on 1 November 2009. This episode was particularly notable for its depiction of the events surrounding the Kennedy assassination.

3.1. Directed Films

3.2. Produced Films

3.3. Acting Roles