Jean-Jacques Annot is a world-famous director and screenwriter who has reached incredible heights in cinema. He is distinguished by an amazing variety of approaches to creating real, high-quality and inspired cinema. At the same time, Anno manages to transfer the optimism inherent to him, the love of life and nature on the screen, again and again opening up to us the world of feelings and sensations, playing in his films like a kaleidoscope.
On the way to art
The cult European director Jean-Jacques Annot (photo below) was born in the French city of Eson. This happened on October 1, 1943. On the path of professional development, such stages as studying literature at the University of the Sorbonne, as well as studying at the Institute of Higher Education in the field of cinema, passed.
After graduation, an important period began in the life of the future director - military service. Anno gave his debt to the country in Cameroon. And this experience had a significant impact on his future creative life. In 1965, Jean-Jacques Annot, whose biography of professional activity began far from full-length masterpieces, gains his first experience in the film industry. He begins to shoot television commercials, as well as training videos for army soldiers.
Debut and success - compatible concepts
The first feature film directed by J.-J. Anno became the picture "Black and White in Color", shot in Africa. She came out on the big screens in 1976. At home, his first creation was met very cool: with a share of offensive indifference. However, a year later, the high artistic value of the debut film was confirmed by the Academy Award, which Black and White in Color received as the best film in a foreign language. Then followed the multiple Cesar awards for other Anno tapes.
Variety of characters and genres - Anno style
Jean-Jacques Annot is rightfully considered a director who does not have any specific style. Or rather, his corporate identity is an amazing variety of styles. Either he shoots a touching melodrama, then historical cinema without dialogs, but with expressive landscapes and amazing makeup of heroes, then an erotic drama with beautiful, thoughtful and subtly conveyed scenes of love. And all this he succeeds as if without effort: easily and with dignity.
Accessible and talented about the life of animals through their eyes
The end of the eighties was very fruitful, according to Jean-Jacques Annot, whose filmography was replenished with the tape "Bear". He was inspired by a book called The Grizzly King to shoot a movie dedicated not to people but to animals. In the story, a teddy bear and an adult bear are trying to survive in conditions close to tragic - they are hunted by two poachers, thirsting for their blood. Anno managed to look at the assassination process not from the usual human point of view, but through the eyes of the one who is being persecuted.
"Bear" was released in 1988. But to this day, the film amazes the audience with drama and documentary, although Jean-Jacques Annot himself categorically disagrees with the last feature of this movie. In his opinion, there was no attempt to remove the fact, only an assumption was made about how victims could think in such a situation. True or not, there is no way to check, according to the director.
Few people have an idea of the inconceivable effort that this painting by Anno and the huge number of other people involved in the filming, as well as animals, cost. The main character was played by an adult trained bear named Bart. A huge beast weighing about a ton had to find understudies in scenes where speed and mobility were required. So, other adult bears of various complexions joined the shoots. The most difficult thing about training Bart was teaching him his unusual skill - limp. It took about a year and a half.
It was also not easy with the baby. In the filming of scenes with a teddy bear, more than a dozen different four-legged actors were involved. Because the behavior of an animal not yet grown was much more difficult to correct. When the "artists" mastered the necessary skills, the exhausting process of filming began. During them I had to face boredom, and with impatience, and even with the irritation of the team. But Anno could not be stopped. And in the end, the picture was released in 1988.
Creative multitasking
The diversity of the creative nature of the director was also manifested in the fact that during forced pauses in the filming with the bears, he did not rest and did not indulge, but was immersed in the creation of a completely different film - an adaptation of Umberto Eco’s novel called “The Name of the Rose”. The film starred such stars as Sean Connery and Christian Slater.
It would seem, how is it possible to maneuver between such different projects? Anno proved that he is capable of decisively everything in terms of cinema. Both paintings were successful and received high marks from both critics and ordinary viewers.
The underrated "lover"
A breakthrough in European cinema was the picture "Lover." Despite the fact that, according to the acknowledgment of many film connoisseurs, the film was shot extremely talented and worthy of all kinds of laudable epithets, “Lover” did not stand on a par with Anno's most successful creations.
There were many reasons for this. Firstly, the film was filled with erotic scenes, not at all vulgar, but in those days still unusual for the general public. Secondly, the director again chose English as the language for the filming. At home, they did not forgive him. And this time they did not even begin to consider Anno as a candidate for the next "Cesar".
Creativity and technology innovations. Experiments with history
As a director who began filming commercials for TV, Jean-Jacques Annotte is particularly passionate about new technologies. So, he became the first creator of a movie in 3D. We are talking about a film called "Wings of Courage", which appeared on the screen in the mid 90's. At the same time, one of Anno’s largest projects is the movie “Seven Years in Tibet, ” which is based on a story about a climber who held Nazi views and turned out to be an involuntary captive of Tibet for many years. He managed to get the main roles of such stars as Brad Pitt and David Thewlis.
Also in the film, you can see the actress Ingeborgu Dapkunaite as the wife of one of the heroes. The cinema turned out to be large-scale, spectacular and talented in all respects. Anno was again favored by various movie awards. And did not make fans wait long. He made another film starring Jude Law in the title role Enemy at the Gates. Here, the success was not so obvious. The picture about the Second World War, about the confrontation between Soviet and German snipers was shot spectacularly and, from an artistic point of view, correctly. However, at its creation, Anno was unable to please either side or the other. No matter how hard he tries to express the neutrality of the position as a whole plot, nothing came of it.
Many viewers were dissatisfied with the created characters and the non-obviousness of the assessment of correct and incorrect behavior in such a terrible time for all mankind.
