Humbert Balsan(1954-2005)
- Producer
- Actor
- Director
Born in 1954 into a wealthy family, Humbert Balsan started his career
as a movie actor, his main claim to fame in this field being his
performance as Gawain in
Robert Bresson's
Lancelot of the Lake (1974). But the
young man soon gave up acting for production, a task in which he found
an avid interest. From 1979 to his premature death in 2005, he imposed
himself as a demanding producer, constantly privileging quality over
profit. He helped several women directors to put their projects
together; in this regard,
Sandrine Veysset,
Claire Denis,Brigitte Roüan
owe him much. Likewise, great foreign filmmakers, particularly Arab,
benefited from the support of Ognon Pictures, Balsan's film company,
among whom Youssef Chahine,
Elia Suleiman,
Yousry Nasrallah, but also
James Ivory and
Lars von Trier. The day of February 2005
when Humbert Balsan took his own life at the age of fifty was day of
mourning for French auteur cinema.
