Frédéric Mitterrand
French politician

Frédéric Mitterrand

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French politician
Gender:
Male
Places:
France
Is:
ScreenwriterActorFilm directorFilm producerPoliticianWriter
Work field:
Film, TV, Stage & RadioLiteraturePolitics
Birth:
21 August 1947(Paris)
Star sign:
Leo
Family:
Father:
Robert Mitterrand
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The details
Biography

Introduction

Frédéric Mitterrand (born 21 August 1947 in Paris), a French and Tunisian citizen, is a former French Minister of Culture and Communication. Throughout his career, he has been an actor, screenwriter, television presenter, writer, producer and director.

Biography

Born in Paris, he is the nephew of François Mitterrand, who was the President of France from 1981 to 1995, and the son of engineer Robert Mitterrand (1915–2002) and Edith Cahier, the niece of Eugène Deloncle, the co-founder of "La Cagoule".

He went to the Lycée Janson de Sailly in Paris and studied history and geography at the Paris West University Nanterre La Défense, and political science at Sciences Po. He taught economics, history and geography at EABJM from 1968 to 1971. In 1978, he was a film critic at J'informe. From 1971 to 1986, he ran several art film cinemas in Paris (Olympic Palace, Entrepôt and Olympic-Entrepôt). He also had roles in a number of films, and was in the 1980s active as a producer and director in TV productions.

In June 2008, Mitterrand was appointed as the director of the French Academy in Rome by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

A year later, on 23 June 2009, Mitterrand was appointed to the French government as the Minister of Culture and Communications until May 2012.

Mitterrand, who is openly bisexual, writes a monthly column for Têtu.

The Bad Life

Mitterrand's autobiographical novel The Bad Life (French: La mauvaise vie) was a best seller in 2005. In the book he details his "delight" whilst visiting the male brothels of Bangkok, and writes, "I got into the habit of paying for boys ... The profusion of young, very attractive and immediately available boys put me in a state of desire I no longer needed to restrain or hide." At the time of its release Mitterrand was applauded for his honesty, but he has had to defend his writings after he publicly defended Roman Polanski when Polanski was detained in Switzerland on an American request for extradition for raping a thirteen-year-old girl.

On 5 October 2009, Marine Le Pen of the French National Front Party quoted sections of the book on French television, accusing him of having sex with underage boys and engaging in "sex tourism", demanding that Mitterrand resign his position as culture minister. Amongst others he was also criticised by the Socialist Party spokesman Benoît Hamon, who stated: “As a minister of culture he has drawn attention to himself by defending a film maker and he has written a book where he said he took advantage of sexual tourism. To say the least, I find it shocking.” On the other hand, some conservatives supported Mitterrand, and a close aide to Nicolas Sarkozy said the French President backed his Culture Minister, describing the controversy around him as "pathetic."

Mitterrand insisted the book is not an autobiography, the publisher describes it as a "novel inspired by autobiography" and the BBC refers to it as "autobiographical novel". In his own defence Mitterrand stated, "Each time I was with people who were my age, or who were five years younger – there wasn't the slightest ambiguity – and who were consenting," and that he uses the term "boys" loosely, both in his life and in the book. He also declared, "I condemn sexual tourism, which is a disgrace. I condemn paedophilia, which I have never in any way participated in."

Filmography

Actor
  • 1960: Fortunat
  • 1981: Lettres d'amour en Somalie
  • 1984: Paris vu par… vingt ans plus tard
  • 1995: Madama Butterfly, adaption of the Puccini opera
  • 1997: Mon copain Rachid, by Philippe Barassat
  • 1998: Que la lumière soit, by Arthur Joffé
  • 2001: Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Producer
  • Les Aigles foudroyés, documentary
  • Mémoires d'exil, documentary
  • Fairouz, documentary, 1998
  • Je suis la Folle de Brejnev, 2001
  • FARAH: The Last Empress, documentary 2009

Publications

  • Tous désirs confondus, Actes Sud, 1988, new ed. 2009
  • Mémoires d'exil, Robert Laffont, 1990, ISBN 978-2-221-09023-7
  • Destins d'étoiles – tomes 1, 2, 3, 4 – Fixot, 1991–1992
  • Monte Carlo: la légende, Assouline, 1993
  • Une saison tunisienne, sous la direction de Frédéric Mitterrand et Soraya Elyes-Ferchichi, Actes Sud, 1995
  • L'Ange bleu: un film de Joseph von Sternberg, Plume, 1995
  • Madame Butterfly, Plume, 1995
  • Les Aigles foudroyés – la fin des Romanov des Habsbourg et des Hohenzollern, Pocket, 1998
  • Un jour dans le siècle, Robert Laffont, 2000
  • La Mauvaise Vie, Robert Laffont, 2005
  • Lettres d'amour en Somalie, Pocket, septembre 2006
  • Maroc, 1900–1960 Un certain regard, avec Abdellah Taïa, Actes Sud, 2007
  • Le Festival de Cannes, Robert Laffont, 2007
  • Le désir et la chance, Robert Laffont, 2012
  • La récréation, Robert Laffont, 2013

Honours

National honours

  •  France: Former Chancellor Officer of the Order of the Legion of Honour
  •  France: Former Chancellor Officer of the National Order of Merit
  •  France: Former Chancellor Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, 1st Class

Foreign honours

  •  Monaco: Knight Officer of the Order of Cultural Merit
  • Romania Romanian Royal Family: Knight Commander of the Order of the Crown
  • Romania Romanian Royal Family: Knight of the Royal Decoration of the Cross of the Romanian Royal House