“We shouldn't have done it!”: why the relationship of Bertrand Blier and Anouk Grinberg, the mother of his son, fell apart

Dead at the age of 85, Bertrand Blier formed a famous couple with the actress Anouk Grinberg. In 2010, the director spoke about his breakup in the columns of ParisMatch.

© BOWEN/BESTIMAGE Anouk Grinberg and Bertrand Blier at theater of Paris in 1995.

IN BRIEF

• Bertrand Blier, French film director, died at the age of 85, leaving behind cult films such as Les Valseuses and Buffet froid.
• In an interview with Paris Match in 2010, the director spoke of the filming of Mon homme, a film released in 1996, with Anouk Grinberg, his partner at the time.
• Bertrand Blier had expressed his regrets.

Bertrand Blier is no more. The French director died at the age of 85. His relatives announced the sad news on Tuesday, January 21, to our colleagues at AFP. Although the reasons for his death have not been revealed, there is no doubt that this film enthusiast has left his mark on the 7th art.

His films have spanned generations and some have become cult classics, the image of Valseuses, released in 1974. Other directions made the success of his career: Buffet froid (1979), Tenue de soirée (1986) or even Preparez vos mouchoirs which earned him the Oscar for best foreign film in 1979. Ten years later, Trop belle for you will be rewarded at Cannes. While he will direct Gérard Depardieu eight times, Bertrand Blier has also filmed with the women in his life, in the image of Anouk Grinberg.

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Bertrand Blier regretted filming with Anouk Grinberg

In 2010, while he was in the middle of promoting his play called Sorry about the carpet at the Antoine Theatre in Paris, Bertrand Blier confided at length. In an interview with Paris Match, the son of actor Bernard Blier revealed having lived through hell on the set of the film My Man. The director was then directing Anouk Grinberg, who shared his life in the 90s.

“Filming his own wife in shots that were, let's say, very hard, çit was painful“, he had said. And to continue: “Anouk [Grinberg] and I knew it before we started. We were idiots, we shouldn't have done it!“. A no-holds-barred testimony from the filmmaker about this film released in 1996.

This “unhealthy” shoot that Bertrand Blier would have preferred not to do…

In My Man, Anouk Grinberg played a prostitute, Marie, who fell under the spell of Jeannot, played by Gérard Lanvin. “I could have taken another actress, that would have preserved our relationship“, Bertrand Blier had insisted to our colleagues at Paris Match. “I've always loved undressing women in the movies. But I recognize that filming love scenes with your wife, it's unhealthy“, he had estimated in this same magazine, 14 years earlier, when the film was released.

In all transparency, the director had expressed his regret about this shoot which featured the mother of his son, Léonard. But this professional experience with his family clearly did not vaccinate him. In 2019, Bertrand Blier did it again. The filmmaker had shot with his last companion, the actress Farida Rahouadj, in the film Convoi exceptionnelle. A story, certainly, less sulphurous.