The gentle dandy, Philippe Noiret, a legend of the French cinema, has died of cancer, aged 76. Noiret was best known internationally for the 1973 black comedy, “La Grande Bouffe” (“Blow-Out”), directed by Marco Ferreri.

The film is the story of four prosperous men, disillusioned with life, who make a bizarre suicide pact: to eat, literally, until they drop. They receive a vast delivery of food at the house of one of their number, a judge played with consummate pathos by Noiret, and invite three prostitutes and a female schoolteacher to get the party going. The scenes of gluttony and sexual excess gather momentum until one by one the men succumb and finally the sanitation system fails to meet the challenge, in an epic, distasteful but unforgettable finale.

Noiret featured in about 120 films over a career that spanned 50 years, working with other such great directors as Louis Malle (“Zazie dans le métro”) Guiseppe Tornatore (“Cinema Paradisio”), and Alfred Hitchcock (“Topaz”). His fans shortly will have a last chance to see him in action, in Michel Boujenah’s new film “Trois Amis”, for whom Noiret had just finished his final scene.

From our December 2006 e-newsletter