Albicocco, Jean-Gabriel

(Jean-Gabriel Fernand Joseph Albicocco / February 15, 1936, Cannes, Alpes-Maritimes, France - April 10, 2001, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

   The son of art photographer and cinematographer Quinto Albicocco, he was still a child when he began to photograph. At age twelve, he presented his first amateur film to the Prince of Monaco. Settled in Paris, he had an excellent teacher (his father) and learned the job of cameraman working on several shorts (1953 La Dôt de Sylvie, Armand Chartier; 1954 Croissance de Paris, Marcel Gibaud; 1955 Une Lettre pour vous, André Vetusto; 1961 Madame se meurt, Jean Cayrol, Claude Durand).Then he took part in a polar expedition with documentary director Marcel Ichac. He was briefly an assistant director (1957 Celui qui doit mourir / Colui che deve morire / USA: He Who Must Die, Jules Dassin, France / Italy; Pas de Grisbi pour Ricardo, Henry Lep­age). After his military service in the French army's Cinematographic Service, he directed in 1959 shorts for US TV (Bonsoir). In 1961 he married the young star of his first feature film, Marie Laforêt. Discouraged by the commercial and critic failures of his last works, he left France in the early 1980s for settling in Brazil, a country he discovered when he wrote and produced two Pierre Kast shorts (1968 Bandeira Branca de Oxala; 1969 Macumba, documentary). Unfortunately, he died totally forgotten and penniless in his new country. In June 1968, he co-created the French Directors Society (SRF) and, the following year, the Cannes Film Festival's Quinzaine des Réalisateurs.

 Filmography

1954 ◘ Ténèbre (short; also screenwriter)

1957 ◘ Ciel bleu (short; also screenwriter)

        ◘ Les Essais (short; also screenwriter)

1961 ◘ Nemausus (short; also screenwriter)

        ◘ La Fille aux Yeux d'Or / La ragazza dagli occhi d'oro / USA: The Girl with the Golden Eyes (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter; France / Italy)

1963 ◘ Le Rat d'Amérique / Il sentiero dei disperati / USA: Rat Trap (also screenwriter, co-adapter, cinematographer; France / Italy)

1967 ◘ Le Grand Meaulnes / UK and USA: The Wan­derer (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter, co-dialogist; France / Italy)

        ◘ Le Coeur fou (also screenwriter)

        ◘ Emmanuelle et ses Amours / UK: Hot Pants (co-director with Thomas Fandl, Sachiko Hidari, Gunnar Hôglund; episode "Faire L'Amour"; France / West Germany / Japan; shot in 1968)

        ◘ Le Petit Matin (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter)