Alain Biet is a French film director, actor and screenwriter. He is best known for his films The Red Balloon (1956), The 400 Blows (1959) and Jules and Jim (1962).
Alain Biet was born in Paris, France on November 22, 1922. He studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, and then began his career as an actor, appearing in many French films in the 1950s. He then began writing and directing his own films, beginning with The Red Balloon in 1956. This film won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
He followed this with The 400 Blows in 1959 which was also highly acclaimed and won him the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival. He then wrote and directed Jules and Jim in 1962, which won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for three Academy Awards.
Biet's other films include Stolen Kisses (1968), Mississippi Mermaid (1969), Love on the Run (1979) and The Last Metro (1980). He also wrote and directed the television movie The Two of Us in 1967. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Last Metro in 1981.
Biet was a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1960 and 1975. He served as the President of the French Cinémathèque from 1975 to 1978.
Biet died in Paris on August 1, 2008, at the age of 85. He was buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris.
Alain Biet was a highly talented director who was able to capture the beauty of life in his films. His works were a benchmark of French New Wave cinema and have left an indelible mark on the history of filmmaking.
