French director Laurent Cantet has died at the age of 63. Winner of the Palme d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival. He made nine feature films, in which he mainly dealt with social problems.
“He died this morning in Paris, he was sick,” Cantet’s agent Isabelle de la Patellière told AFP. The exact circumstances of the death remain unknown.
Laurent Cantet was an award-winning filmmaker who in his works dealt mainly with the problems of modern society. His topics included, for example, class struggle, the diversity of society or the education system. He was praised by French critics for the humanism and generosity he brought to his films.
He is probably best known for his 2008 film Between the Walls, which was based on the autobiographical novel by François Bégaudeau. It deals with life in a school classroom and features real teachers and students as well as the author of the literary work. The film won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards for Best International Film and received several nominations at other festivals.
His last listed work was the movie Arthur Rambo, which was released in 2021 and dealt with the effect of social networks on a person. Before his death, the director was working on a film project called L’Apprenti (The Apprentice), which was to be released in cinemas next year.
