Films starring Michel Piccoli

Having amassed some 200 screen appearances since 1945, Michel Piccoli is perhaps the most prolific actor in recent French film. He is also among the most versatile. But British audiences have only seen a fraction of the output that has made him a favourite of Europe's leading auteurs. Hailing from a musical family and trained for the stage, Picc... show more >

Having amassed some 200 screen appearances since 1945, Michel Piccoli is perhaps the most prolific actor in recent French film. He is also among the most versatile. But British audiences have only seen a fraction of the output that has made him a favourite of Europe's leading auteurs. Hailing from a musical family and trained for the stage, Piccoli can shift from mischief to menace, angst to absurdity with a facility that gives each performance an unpredictability that is as dangerous as it's compelling. It's hardly surprising, therefore, that he has worked profitably with such iconoclasts as Jean-Luc Godard (Le Mépris, 1963), Marco Ferreri (La Grande Bouffe, 1972) and Luis Buñuel, with whom he collaborated seven times, most notably on Belle de Jour (1967) and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972). But Piccoli is also capable of passion and finesse, as he devastatingly demonstrated in Jacques Rivette's masterly La Belle Noiseuse (1991). < show less