François Girard
Birth : 1963-01-12, St-Felicien, Quebec, Canada
History
François Girard (born January 12, 1963) is a French-Canadian director and screenwriter particularly noted for his innovative film Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. Born in Quebec, Girard's career began on the Montreal art video circuit. In 1990, he produced his first feature film, Cargo; he attained international recognition following his 1993 Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, a series of vignettes about the life of piano prodigy Glenn Gould. In 1998, he wrote and directed The Red Violin, which follows the ownership of a red violin over several centuries. The Red Violin won an Academy Award for Best Original Soundtrack, thirteen Genie Awards and nine Jutra Awards.
He has also directed various works for the stage, including Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, Oedipus Rex and Novencento at the Edinburgh International Festival; Kafka's The Trial at the National Arts Centre, Ottawa; the oratorio Lost Objects at the Brooklyn Academy of Music; Siegfried in Toronto; and The Lindbergh Flight and The Seven Deadly Sins, first in Lyon and then in Edinburgh. Girard has also produced a residency show for Cirque du Soleil, Zed , in Tokyo and Zarkana, which will open at Radio City Music Hall in New York in the summer of 2011.
His television credits include Le dortoir, Peter Gabriel's Secret World and The Sound of the Carceri, one of the six episodes of Yo Yo Ma Inspired by Bach.
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Director
Wagner’s soaring masterpiece makes its triumphant return to the Met stage after 17 years. In a sequel to his revelatory production of Parsifal, director François Girard unveils an atmospheric staging that once again weds his striking visual style and keen dramatic insight to Wagner’s breathtaking music, with Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium to conduct a supreme cast led by tenor Piotr Beczała in the title role of the mysterious swan knight. Soprano Tamara Wilson is the virtuous duchess Elsa, falsely accused of murder, going head to head with soprano Christine Goerke as the cunning sorceress Ortrud, who seeks to lay her low. Bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin is Ortrud’s power-hungry husband, Telramund, and bass Günther Groissböck is King Heinrich.
Director
François Girard, whose revelatory 2013 take on Parsifal set the recent Met standard for Wagner stagings, now unveils a spellbinding new vision of the composer's tale of a cursed sea captain doomed to sail the open ocean for eternity. With sweeping sets by John Macfarlane, Girard’s new production turns the Met stage into a rich, layered tableau reminiscent of a vast oil painting. Valery Gergiev conducts a brilliant cast led by bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin as the Dutchman, with German soprano Anja Kampe making her anticipated Met debut as the devoted Senta, whose selfless love is what the Dutchman seeks. Bass Franz-Josef Selig is her father, Daland, and tenor Sergey Skorokhodov is her deserted former lover, Erik. This live cinema transmission is part of the Met’s award-winning Live in HD series, bringing opera to more than 2,200 theaters in more than 70 countries worldwide.
Director
A man searching for his childhood best friend — a Polish violin prodigy orphaned in the Holocaust — who vanished decades before on the night of his first public performance.
Self
Writer
Mohawk archaeologist Baptiste Asigny engages in a search for his ancestors following a tragic terrain slump in the Percival Molson Stadium.
Director
Mohawk archaeologist Baptiste Asigny engages in a search for his ancestors following a tragic terrain slump in the Percival Molson Stadium.
Writer
The story of Zarkana takes place in abandoned theater where the main character Zark was a successful magician many years ago. Since then, he has lost his magic and his stage assistant Lia. Zark goes through the theater encountering in search of his stage assistant Lia and reignite his magic.
Director
The story of Zarkana takes place in abandoned theater where the main character Zark was a successful magician many years ago. Since then, he has lost his magic and his stage assistant Lia. Zark goes through the theater encountering in search of his stage assistant Lia and reignite his magic.
Director
A troubled and angry 11-year-old orphan from a small Texas town, ends up at a Boy Choir school after the death of his single mother. Completely out of his element, he finds himself in a battle of wills with a demanding Choir Master who recognises a unique talent in this young boy as he pushes him to discover his creative heart and soul in music.
Himself
Witness how ZED comes to life in its making-of documentary. Learn how the show became more than its individual pieces. Through the nurturance and cultivation of a sense of community between ZED artists, musicians and technicians, Francois Girard encouraged the show to develop its own arrangement and follow the rhythm of its own heartbeat.
Writer
Witness how ZED comes to life in its making-of documentary. Learn how the show became more than its individual pieces. Through the nurturance and cultivation of a sense of community between ZED artists, musicians and technicians, Francois Girard encouraged the show to develop its own arrangement and follow the rhythm of its own heartbeat.
Director
The Met assembled an ideal cast for François Girard’s acclaimed new production of Wagner’s final masterpiece. Jonas Kaufmann in the title role of the fool “made wise by compassion” is as convincing vocally as he is haunting dramatically, delivering a thoroughly moving portrayal. René Pape is equally compelling as Gurnemanz, the veteran Knight of the Grail, and Katarina Dalayman thrillingly brings out the dual sides of Kundry. Peter Mattei is Amfortas, the anguished ruler of the Grail’s kingdom, and Evgeny Nikitin sings the evil magician Klingsor. Daniele Gatti on the podium reveals both the serenity and dramatic tension of what may be Wagner’s greatest score.
Director
The Met assembled an ideal cast for François Girard’s acclaimed new production of Wagner’s final masterpiece: Jonas Kaufmann in the title role of the fool “made wise by compassion”, René Pape as Gurnemanz, the veteran Knight of the Grail, Katarina Dalayman as Kundry, Peter Mattei is Amfortas, the anguished ruler of the Grail’s kingdom, and Evgeny Nikitin sings the evil magician Klingsor.
Himself
Zarkana is a Cirque du Soleil stage production written and directed by François Girard. It began as a touring show in 2011 and was converted to a permanent show in Las Vegas in late 2012. It premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on June 29, 2011 and later toured to the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow and the Madrid Arena in Madrid. Following Zarkana's successful run in Moscow, it was announced that the show would start residency at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. The show replaced the Cirque du Soleil resident production Viva Elvis, which closed in August 2012 at the Aria Resort. Zarkana by Cirque du Soleil is about a spirited journey through an abandoned theater where an extraordinary circus comes back to life. Populated by a motley collection of off-the-wall characters and incomparable acrobats, Zarkana is a visual vortex set in a twisted acrobatic fantasy universe where, little by little, chaos and craziness give way to a true celebration.
Screenplay
Based on the best-selling novel by Alessandro Baricco, this visually stunning film tells the story of a French trader who finds unexpected love far away from home.
Director
Based on the best-selling novel by Alessandro Baricco, this visually stunning film tells the story of a French trader who finds unexpected love far away from home.
elf
This compelling documentary explores Canadian film culture and tries to discover what defines Canadian film through interviews with notable filmmakers.
Wild Guy #1
Various citizens of Toronto anxiously await the end of the world, which is occurring at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day.
Writer
300 years of a remarkable musical instrument. Crafted by the Italian master Bussotti (Cecchi) in 1681, the red violin has traveled through Austria, England, China, and Canada, leaving both beauty and tragedy in its wake. In Montreal, Samuel L Jackson plays an appraiser going over its complex history.
Director
300 years of a remarkable musical instrument. Crafted by the Italian master Bussotti (Cecchi) in 1681, the red violin has traveled through Austria, England, China, and Canada, leaving both beauty and tragedy in its wake. In Montreal, Samuel L Jackson plays an appraiser going over its complex history.
Director
THE SOUND OF THE CARCERI explores the deep relationship between music and architecture through a high-tech 'virtual confrontation' between Bach and his contemporary, the architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Using a striking visual style, director Francois Girard ('The Red Violin' and 'Thirty-Two Short Films about Glenn Gould') places Yo-Yo Ma within a series of computer-generated, three-dimensional recreations of Piranesi's well-known prison etchings. Through Yo-Yo Ma's and music producer Steven Epstein's struggle to recreate and interact with the imaginary space that Ma performs in, the film examines the complexity of illusion, of representation and reality.
Writer
Actress Suzanne Cloutier is interviewed about "Othello", Orson Welles' masterpiece, in which she played Desdemona.
Director
Actress Suzanne Cloutier is interviewed about "Othello", Orson Welles' masterpiece, in which she played Desdemona.
Director
Filmed in Modena, Italy across two nights in November 1993 as part of Peter Gabriel's acclaimed Secret World Live tour in support of the Us album, the show is elaborately presented and choreographed with two stages joined by a narrow pier. Peter Gabriel has always been a charismatic live performer with the ability to draw his audience into the onstage world he has created and rarely has this been better captured than on Secret World Live.
Screenplay
A collection of vignettes highlighting different aspects of the life, work, and character of the acclaimed Canadian classical pianist.
Director
A collection of vignettes highlighting different aspects of the life, work, and character of the acclaimed Canadian classical pianist.
Writer
A dance drama telling of a man's journey back into memory and imagination to escape, and finally overcome, a personal crisis. A convent school dormitory is the setting for a chronicle of fleeting impressions told through dance, music and images ranging from the erotic to the violent, and are infused with a mixture of high romanticism and gritty urban toughness.
Director
A dance drama telling of a man's journey back into memory and imagination to escape, and finally overcome, a personal crisis. A convent school dormitory is the setting for a chronicle of fleeting impressions told through dance, music and images ranging from the erotic to the violent, and are infused with a mixture of high romanticism and gritty urban toughness.
Director
Director
A railroad worker has arrived at a halt in his life, at the same stopping point as his locomotive - a place situated between memory and imagination where the spectator may integrate himself into the poetic fiction.
