Gilles Carle

Who was Gilles Carle?

Gilles Carle, OC GOQ was a French Canadian director, screenwriter and painter.

Carle was born in Maniwaki, Quebec. His film 50 ans, celebrating the 50 years of the National Film Board of Canada, won the Short Film Palme d'Or at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.

He joined the NFB in 1960, where his credits included La vie heureuse de Léopold Z. But after the NFB rejected several of Carle's projects, he began working independently. In 1972 Carle won the Canadian Film Award for best Director for his The True Nature of Bernadette.

In 1990, he was awarded the Government of Quebec's Prix Albert-Tessier. In 1997, Carle received a Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts. In 1998, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2007, he was made a Grand Officer of the Ordre National du Quebec.

Carle died aged 81 on November 28, 2009 of complications from Parkinson's disease at the hospital in Granby, Quebec. He is survived by his son and three daughters as well as his companion of 27 years, Chloé Sainte-Marie. Quebec Premier Jean Charest described him, at his death, as one of Quebec's most influential filmmakers.