Jean-Christophe Averty: Movies & Filmography

Jean-Christophe Averty was a renowned French television and radio director born on 6 August 1928 in Paris, France. A graduate of the prestigious IDHEC film school, he began his television career in 1952 at the French Television Office. Over the course of his prolific career, Averty directed over five hundred programs for television and radio, spanning an extraordinary range of disciplines including fiction, documentary, drama, variety, and jazz. Many of his television productions from the 1960s were groundbreaking early examples of French video art, and his pioneering techniques were studied by research groups at France's Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA) for decades following. In 2012, he entrusted the management, conservation, and safeguarding of the rights to nearly a thousand of his television programs to the INA.

Averty made his reputation on his strong character, his taste for provocation, and his innovative approach to television. His 1963 series The Green Grapes was infamous for a recurring sequence depicting a baby being put through a grater. He was a keen connoisseur of jazz, and he filmed the Jazz à Juan festival for many years; in tribute, pianist Martial Solal composed a piece entitled Averty, c'est moi ("Averty, that's me"). Over 28 years, he hosted an impressive 1,805 episodes of his radio show Les Cinglés du music-hall, based on his personal collection of jazz and variety 78s gathered from flea markets around the world. The show was cancelled in 2006 under Jean-Paul Cluzel's chairmanship of Radio France. Averty directed television shows that showcased the greatest francophone singers, including Françoise Hardy, Yves Montand, Johnny Hallyday, Sylvie Vartan, Juliette Gréco, Georges Brassens, Dalida, France Gall, Serge Gainsbourg, Gilbert Bécaud, Guy Marchand, Léo Ferré, Tino Rossi, and Jean Sablon, as well as foreign musicians like Patty Pravo. In 1969, he directed the TV movie Le Songe d'une nuit d'été, starring Claude Jade, Christine Delaroche, and Jean-Claude Drouot, filmed entirely in bluescreen. His television creations became landmarks in their use of video as a mode of artistic expression, particularly through his innovative use of characters filmed against a blue screen overlaid on drawn backgrounds, as seen in works like Sapeur Camembert and his production of Edmond Rostand's classic play Chantecler. Averty was appointed Satrap of the College of 'Pataphysique in 1990 due to his fascination for Alfred Jarry and Pataphysique. Among his many awards and distinctions, he received an Emmy Award in 1965 and the Legion of Honour in 1991. He was also one of the last salaried directors of the Société française de production (SFP). Averty passed away on 4 March 2017 at the age of 88, leaving behind a substantial legacy in French broadcasting history.