Jean-Claude Bernardet
Jean-Claude Bernardet OMC (French: [ʒɑ̃klod bɛʁnaʁdɛ]; August 2, 1936 – July 12, 2025) was a Belgian-born Brazilian film theorist, film critic, film director, actor, screenwriter and writer.
Life and career
[edit]Bernardet was born August 2, 1936 in Belgium, to a French family, he spent his childhood in Paris, and came to Brazil with his family at the age of 13, becoming a naturalized Brazilian citizen in 1964. He held a degree from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, and a PhD in Arts from the ECA (School of Communications and Arts) at University of São Paulo.[1]
He became interested in cinema from the film club, and began to write reviews in the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo at the invitation of Paulo Emílio Salles Gomes. He became a great interlocutor of the group of filmmakers of Cinema Novo, and especially of Glauber Rocha, who broke with him after the publication of Brasil em Tempo de Cinema (1967). He was one of the creators of the film course at University of Brasilia, in Brasília, and taught History of Brazilian Cinema at ECA, until he retired in 2004.[2]
In addition to his importance as a theorist, he was also a fictionist, with four published volumes. He participated in several films, as a screenwriter and assistant director, eventually as an actor in small roles.[3] In the 1990s, he directed two medium-length poetic essays: São Paulo, Sinfonia e Cacofonia (1994) and Sobre Anos 60 (1999).[4]
In 2007 he was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit.[5]
He was also the inventor of the children's toy Combina-cor, launched by Grow.[6]
Bernardet died at the Samaritano Hospital in São Paulo, on July 12, 2025, at the age of 88.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ "CCBB homenageia Jean-Claude Bernardet com mostra de documentários". Guia Folha (in Brazilian Portuguese). 2010-05-19. Retrieved 2025-07-13.
- ^ Lourenço, Rodrigo A. "Trópico - Cólera e ternura de Jean-Claude Bernardet". pphp.uol.com.br. Archived from the original on 2008-04-19. Retrieved 2025-07-13.
- ^ "Filme "Fome" aborda desigualdade social no Brasil". GZH (in Portuguese). 2016-08-04. Retrieved 2025-07-13.
- ^ "Livros na Livraria Resposta". www.livrariaresposta.com.br. Archived from the original on 2021-12-09. Retrieved 2025-07-13.
- ^ "He Died an Icon of Cinema at Age 88: 'Sadness Is only Less than Emptiness'". Ground News. 2025-07-12. Retrieved 2025-07-13.
- ^ "Interview with Roney Rodrigues, from Livrevista, May 2011".
- ^ SBT (2025-07-12). "Morre Jean-Claude Bernardet, crítico de cinema, roteirista e ator, aos 88 anos". SBT News (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2025-07-13.