The Guardian (25/Nov/2006) - Obituary: Philippe Noiret

(c) The Guardian (25/Nov/2006)

French actor with the versatility to perform a wide variety of roles but best known for his role in Cinema Paradiso

The tall, bulky build and droopy bloodhound face of Philippe Noiret, who has died aged 76, were significant features on the European cinema landscape for more than half a century. Hergé, the creator of the Tintin' comic strip, said that Noiret was his Captain Haddock come to life.

Although his appearance gave the impression of a cartoon character, Noiret was able to find a naturalness in his portrayals, often of avuncular figures. In later years, he made his greatest impact internationally in Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso (1988), as a wonderfully warm-hearted projectionist at a failing provincial cinema, affectionately sharing his love of film with a young enthusiast. Almost equal in reputation was his masterful Pablo Neruda in Michael Radford's Il Postino (1994), somehow managing to suggest the Chilean poet without either the accent or physical resemblance, in his role as the confidante of a love-struck Italian postman.

Noiret was born in Lille and studied theatre at Jean Vilar's Théâtre National Populaire in Paris. He made his screen debut, aged 18, in a bit part in Gigi (1948), directed by Jacqueline Audry. Audry cast Noiret again in Olivia (1950). His third film, La Pointe Courte (1955), was also by a woman director, Agnés Varda - her first feature. This was considered to be the first film of the nouvelle vague.

Noiret's film career really took off with Louis Malle's Zazie Dans Le Metro (1960), in which he was delightfully acerbic as Uncle Gabriel, a female impersonator who has to take care of the precocious foul-mouthed pre-teen of the title. Revealing his versatility, he won the best actor award at Venice for his role as the dull but inoffensive husband poisoned by his wife in Thérèse Desqueyroux (1962).

In 1968, Noiret took one of his most typical comic parts, a charming hedonist, in the title role of Alexandre le Bienheureux (Happy Alexander). Alexandre, after the death of his wife, locks himself up in his house with his dog and stays in bed. After two months, he gets up and leads a holiday existence.

After a few excursions into large international co-productions, such as Anatole Litvak's The Night Of The Generals (1967), Alfred Hitchcock's Topaz (1969) and Peter Yates's Murphy's War (1971) in which he walked through minor roles for a major salary, Noiret returned to home territory.

In Marco Ferreri's La Grande Bouffe (Blow Out, 1973), he played a degenerate oedipal judge, hosting three other bored middle-aged men in his villa in order literally to eat themselves to death. This excessive movie about excess was followed by another unsubtle Ferreri film, Touche pas á la Femme Blanche (Don't Touch the White Woman, 1973), a Western parody. More important was L'Horloger de Saint-Paul (The Watchmaker of St Paul, 1974), the first of a dozen films he made with Bertrand Tavernier, who called Noiret "my autobiographical actor" because they both espoused the same perception of "realism". In their first collaboration, Noiret gives a beautifully nuanced performance in the title role as a man leading a quiet life in a Lyons suburb, stunned when he learns that his son is wanted for murder.

In contrast, their second film together was a period piece, Que La Fête Commence (Let Joy Reign Supreme, 1975) in which the bewigged actor seemed to relish the role of the atheistic Philippe d'Orleans. Tavernier cast him again years later in costume as a shabby ex-musketeer making a living as a fencing master in La Fille d'Artagnan (D'Artagnan's Daughter, 1994). In Tavernier's Le Juge et l'Assassin (The Judge and the Assassin, 1975), Noiret built a complex character, sometimes domineering and chillingly cruel; then quirkily humorous in Coupe de Torchon (Clean Slate, 1981) as a lackadaisical law officer of a west African township in 1938 who undergoes a transformation after shooting a pair of pimps.

Perhaps his finest performance for Tavernier was in La Vie et Rien d'Autre (Life And Nothing But, 1989), exuding gravitas together with a sense of irony as an army officer having to deal with amnesiac survivors after the first world war.

On a lighter note, he was a pompous professor of Greek who falls for Annie Girardot's cop in De Broca's Tendre Poulet (Dear Inspector, 1978) and on honeymoon in the sequel Jupiter's Thigh (1979). He and Girardot made an endearing couple in several films such as The Old Maid (1972). His last film, due out next year, is Trois Amis.

Noiret is survived by his wife, Monique Chaumette, whom he married in 1962, and a daughter.