France Roche
April 2, 1921 – December 14, 2013
Saint-Tropez, Var, France
France Roche is a French journalist, film critic, television producer and presenter, actress, born April 2, 1921 in Saint-Tropez and died December 14, 2013 in Paris 10th. She has also written books and film scripts, adapted plays and acted in films. She collaborated in particular with: Ciné Mondial (1941-1944), Cinévie and especially Cinémonde of which she was editor-in-chief, magazines devoted to cinema; Marie France then France-Soir, as head of the cinema page of Pierre Lazareff's daily newspaper. The newspaper then has a circulation of more than a million copies and can have three or four editions per day. She is the “Madame Cinema” of the most powerful French newspaper; the ORTF, as part of the broadcasts: Five columns on the front page, where she notably carries out an interview with Brigitte Bardot, Cinépanorama (programs on cinema, notably on the Cannes festival), Thirty years of silence (on the stars of silent cinema) and Headliner: long interviews with Pierre Brasseur, Madeleine Renaud (1966), Jean Marais (1968), Arletty, Annie Girardot (1969), Simone Signoret, Paul Meurisse (1970), Michel Piccoli (1971), Jeanne Moreau (1972)…; Antenna 2: called by Jacqueline Baudrier, she becomes deputy editor-in-chief and editorialist, head of the culture department. She is the specialist in cinema, entertainment and fashion on the television news (1969-1986) within the framework of which she notably presents live every day during the Cannes Film Festival a column on the films in competition. She also interviews Woody Allen in the show Woody Allen or the Funniest Anhedonist in the World (1979). She then participated in the shows Sexy Folies created by Pascale Breugnot (1986) in which she advised viewers on the telephone then J'aime à la Folie devoted to the Avignon Festival (1987-88): Canal Jimmy, where, at the request of Michel Thoulouze and Pierre Lescure she hosts T'as pas une idées, a trans-generational show in which a guest, born in the 1950s to 70s, is questioned by young people from the 1990s (1991-2001); CinéCinéma, where she presents the show Ciné-ciné court dedicated to short films; France Inter where she is a columnist for Pierre-Yves Guillen in the show Piment Rose. France Roche is the author of several film scripts, notably with Michel Audiard, whom she discovered and starred in around fifteen films between 1950 and 1958. She was a member of the jury at the Berlin Film Festival in 1961. France Roche's career presents an atypical profile. Familiar with the general public until around 1965, she then took on executive functions more in the background, with less visibility, before returning to the screens from 1986. Such a long eclipse, although only apparent, and her return, have at the time created astonishment. She was the wife of François Chalais then of Gilbert de Goldschmidt, with whom she has a son: Frédéric, born in 1959.
