Bertrand Blier, who has died aged 85, had the appearance of a placid, pipe-smoking academic and the disruptive spirit of an imp. “My films are an aggression against people, against logic, against good sense,” the director said. He saw his role as “attacking society: hard, repeatedly and below the belt”.
His pictures, tinged with Buñuelian mischief and often starring Gérard Depardieu, tended to begin with an outré idea which he then pursued doggedly to its conclusion. His masterpiece was Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1978), which won that year’s Oscar for best foreign language film. It starts with a man (Depardieu) offering his doleful wife to a stranger in a restaurant in a bid to lift her spirits. She eventually finds fulfilment in the arms of a 13-year-old boy.
