11/02/2005 - The 7th art in France has just suffered a great loss. Balsan had produced, since 1979, 52 feature films. Amongst them, quite a few masterpieces

The 7th art in France has just suffered a great loss, to everybody's surprise and grief: on Thursday, in Paris, producer Humbert Balsan, age 50, committed suicide.
Humbert Balsan, who was also vice-president in the administration board of the Cinémathèque française and president of the European Film Academy, had produced, since 1979, through his company Ognon Pictures, 52 feature films. Amongst them, quite a few masterpieces: Intervention divine by Elia Suleiman, several movies by Youssef Chahine (for instance the latest, Alexandrie...New York in 2004, Le Destin in 1997, L’Emigré in 1994, and Adieu Bonaparte in 1985), as well as La Porte du soleil (2004) by Yousry Nasrallah, L’intrus (2004) by Claire Denis, Y aura t-il de la neige à Noël? (1996) by Sandrine Veysset, and Quartet (1981), Jefferson à Paris (1995), and Surviving Picasso (1996) by James Ivory. Amongst his latest (co)productions, it is worth mentioning the very successful Le grand voyage by Ismaël Ferroukhi (Gold Lion for the best first work at the last Mostra) and Quand la mer monte by Yolande Moreau and Gilles Porte.

Humbert Balsan leaves a few orphans, the projects he had been working on: L’Homme de Londres by the Hungarian Belà Tarr, as well as three French films, Sandrine Veysset's Il sera une fois, Brigitte Rouän'sTravaux), and Francis Girod's Un ami parfait). Yesterday night, as a public tribute to the late producer, Catherine Colonna, head of the Centre National de la Cinématographie, promised that the CNC would make sure 'that the work started by Humbert Balsan is not left unfinished.'

(Translated from French)