Brach, Gérard

(July 23, 1927, Montrouge, Hauts-de-Seine, France - September 9, 2006, Paris, France)

   He dropped out of school in the early 1940s in­tending to dedicate himself to drawing and painting. At age eighteen, he suffered from tuberculosis and spent five years in a sanitarium where he read a lot and discovered his interest for surrealism. A produc­tion assistant in the 1950s and then a press attaché for Twentieth Century Fox (1959-1962), he be­friended Roman Polanski and made his screenwrit-ing debut co-authoring with the Polish director the segment "La Rivière de Diamants" of Les plus belles Escroqueries du Monde in 1963. Until his death in 2006, he co-wrote almost sixty movies. He regularly collaborated with Roman Polanski (1965 Repulsion, UK; 1966 Cul-de-Sac, UK; 1967 Dance of the Vampires / USA: The Fearless Vampire Killers / The Fearless Vampire Killers, or: Pardon Me, but Your Teeth Are in My Neck, UK / US; 1972 What? / Che? / Quoi? / Was? / USA: Diary of Forbidden Dreams, Italy / France / West Germany; 1976 Le Locataire / The Tenant, France / USA; 1979 Tess, France / UK; 1986 Pirates, France / Tunisia; 1988 Frantic, USA / France; 1992 Bitter Moon / Lunes de Fiel, France / UK), Claude Berri (1967 Le Vieil Homme et l'Enfant / UK: The Old Man and the Boy / USA: The Two of Us; 1986 Jean de Florette; Manon des Sources / Manon delle sorgenti / USA: Manon of the Spring, France / Italy), and Jean-Jacques Annaud (1981 La Guerre du Feu / Quest for Fire, Canada / France / USA; 1986 Le Nom de la Rose / Der Name der Rose / Il nome della rosa / USA: The Name of the Rose, France / West Germany / Italy; 1988 L'Ours / The Bear, France / USA; 1992 L'Amant the Lover, France / UK / Vietnam; 2007 Sa Majesté Minor / Su Majestad Minor, France / Spain). He died of lung cancer.

 Filmography

        ◘ Des Bleuets dans la Tête (short; also screenwriter)

        ◘ La Maison (also screenwriter, adapter, dialogist)

1971 ◘ Le Bateau sur l'Herbe / USA: The Boat on the Grass (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter, co-dialogist)