Brigitte Bellac

For two decades and a half, the name of Brigitte Bellac (born in Paris in 1956) was associated with the big and the small screen, first as of 1976 as an actress and later, from 1987 to 2004 as a scriptwriter for TV films and series episodes. But there is much more to Brigitte Bellac's career than "just" that. The lady can also boast being a clown (she loves making people laugh) and a human automaton (exercising her talents in big congress halls such as those of Versailles or Monaco, and even live on the Antenne 2 channel...). And as if that were not enough, she is also a sculptor and pastel art painter. To say nothing about trading the boards from the age of sixteen, (appearing first as young Hauviette in Charles Péguy's 'Le Mystère de la charité de Jeanne d'Arc', then in classics by Molière, Marivaux..., before performing in the newly appeared "café théâtre" genre (the cradle of the career of Coluche, Gérard Jugnot, Josiane Balasko, Thierry Lhermitte and their likes). Such versatility could be regarded as a defect (especially in France where people like putting labels to artists) but, as far as she is concerned, this is far from being the case. Being multi-talented does not necessarily mean a squander of efforts. For there is unity to most of Miss Bellac's artistic activities : the terms WRITING and COMEDY being her two main guiding forces, best synthesized in her work for the much loved (and regretted) satiric radio programme on France Inter, "L'Oreille en coin", produced by Jean Garretto and Pierre Codou. For three years on the run she wrote and/or interpreted short stories, tales, comedy sketches and journalistic chronicles galore. A writer since she was eight, Brigitte Bellac has many written short stories, one play ("Jacques a dit"), five novels, several children's books and TV scripts (Sud Lointain (1997), (Le danger d'aimer (1998), Drôles de clowns (1999), Deux frères (2000),...) . As a cinema or TV actress, she was active from 1976 to 1994, doing the splits from the spiritually aloft Charles Péguy to the much more down to earth Michel Lang, debuting in the widely popular À nous les petites Anglaises! (1976). A far cry from Hauviette, young Joan of Ark's best friend. She had indeed become Mireille, the bad and ugly little French chick who brings about the scandal. She was later hired by Édouard Molinaro to appear in his adaptation of Colette's "Claudine" TV series. This time, she was Marie Belhomme, a naive - not to say foolish - girl with the frightened doe's eyes. A dozen films followed but film directors tended to have her repeat this type of roles. Brigitte Bellac wound up being fed up with always playing the stupid girl. Fortunately she got much more rewarding roles in the theatre. After a while, she gave up acting and writing for the cinema and television, a world she found too cruel, and turned to painting, sculpting, novel and short story writing instead. Her literary works owed her several awards she can be proud of. So when you look at painting or a sculpture by Brigitte Bellac, if you read a bloody thriller ("La Pierresse", "Le Fou de la reine blanche") or a noir short story bearing her signature, you will probably never suspect that their author is the former... ugly duckling of French cinema!