André Weinfeld
Encyclopedia
An alumnus of prestigious Lycée Louis-le-Grand
in Paris
, André Weinfeld is a French and American film and television producer, director, screenwriter, photographer and journalist.
(IDHEC).
First, a Camera operator
and then a Cinematographer
to several "French New Wave
" short and full-length feature films (collaborating with, among others, directors Philippe Garrel
, Jean Eustache
, Néstor Almendros
, etc.) André Weinfeld became – at age 19 – one of the youngest television directors, producers and journalists in France.
and pop
scenes in "Swinging London
" and in the US for the TV show "Bouton Rouge" at the Monterey International Pop Festival, the Woodstock Festival
, working with many major musicians, among them Jimi Hendrix
, The Beatles
, The Rolling Stones
, Cream
, The Who
, Janis Joplin
, Otis Redding
, Eric Clapton
, Pink Floyd
, etc. Later on, this time as a War correspondent
, André accepted several "hard news" assignments to Israel
, Syria
, Egypt
and Lebanon
during the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War
and Saigon during the Vietnam War
.
After serving for one year as a director of several feature and documentary films in the French Army Cinema Service (ECPAD), André Weinfeld wrote and directed in 1976 his first feature short La Bonne Nouvelle (The Good News), with Claude Chabrol
, Thomas Chabrol, Christine Boisson
, Michel Duchaussoy
, Mary Marquet and Daniel Prévost
, which was awarded the Grand Prize at the International London Film Festival
and thereafter distributed in France by Warner-Columbia.
André then worked as a screenwriter for several French Films, among them La Clé sur la porte
(1978) starring French actors Patrick Dewaere
and Annie Girardot
.
, Mickey Rooney
and Douglas Fairbanks Jr..
He then went on to produce all of Raquel's National Tour and Live Concerts in Las Vegas
, Lake Tahoe
and Atlantic City and subsequently co-produced the Broadway Musical Woman of the Year
by Fred Ebb
and John Kander
.
His work as a Commercial and Editorial Photographer for the Sygma Corbis
news agency has appeared worldwide on the covers and in the pages of Life magazine, Newsweek
, Time magazine, Vogue
, Harper's Bazaar
, Playboy
, etc. His photographs have also been chosen to represent Hasselblad
's renowned professional camera products in one of that company's recent international advertising campaign. In 1984, he published and photographed Raquel’s best selling Fitness Book "Total Beauty and Fitness" and produced and directed her Fitness and Yoga videos.
in Paris in 1977, André Weinfeld decided to move to Hollywood to join her. They eventually married in 1980.
Divorced from Raquel Welch in 1990, André Weinfeld is now living with his 17 year old son Zachary from his second marriage to American fashion model and songwriter Jaimie Lilly (from whom he is also divorced), sharing his time between Paris
, New York
and Los Angeles
. He is currently working on several film and multimedia projects both in France and the USA.
Lycée Louis-le-Grand
The Lycée Louis-le-Grand is a public secondary school located in Paris, widely regarded as one of the most rigorous in France. Formerly known as the Collège de Clermont, it was named in king Louis XIV of France's honor after he visited the school and offered his patronage.It offers both a...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, André Weinfeld is a French and American film and television producer, director, screenwriter, photographer and journalist.
Early life
After receiving a Master Degree in Psychology and French Literature at the Sorbonne University, André Weinfeld graduated cum laude from the renowned French Film School Institut des hautes études cinématographiquesInstitut des hautes études cinématographiques
L'Institut des hautes études cinématographiques is a French film school, founded during World War II under the leadership of Marcel L'Herbier who was its president from 1944 to 1969. IDHEC offered training for directors and producers, cameramen, sound technicians, editors, art directors and...
(IDHEC).
First, a Camera operator
Camera operator
A camera operator or cameraman is a professional operator of a film or video camera. In filmmaking, the leading cameraman is usually called a cinematographer, while a cameraman in a video production may be known as a television camera operator, video camera operator, or videographer, depending on...
and then a Cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
to several "French New Wave
French New Wave
The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...
" short and full-length feature films (collaborating with, among others, directors Philippe Garrel
Philippe Garrel
Philippe Garrel is a French director, cinematographer, screenwriter, editor and producer. His movies have won him awards at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival...
, Jean Eustache
Jean Eustache
Jean Eustache was a French filmmaker. During his short career, he completed numerous shorts, in addition to a pair of highly regarded features, of which the first, The Mother and the Whore, is considered a key work of post-Nouvelle Vague French cinema.In his obituary for Eustache, the influential...
, Néstor Almendros
Néstor Almendros
Néstor Almendros, ASC was an Oscar winning Spanish cinematographer. One of the highest appraised contemporary cinematographers, "Almendros was an artist of deep integrity, who believed the most beautiful light was natural light...he will always be remembered as a cinematographer of absolute...
, etc.) André Weinfeld became – at age 19 – one of the youngest television directors, producers and journalists in France.
French career
For the next 10 years, André directed, produced and reported over 70 weekly news and documentary magazine programs and French Network Specials, covering everything from fashion to the 1960s and 1970s rock and rollRock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
and pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
scenes in "Swinging London
Swinging London
Swinging London is a catch-all term applied to the fashion and cultural scene that flourished in London, in the 1960s.It was a youth-oriented phenomenon that emphasised the new and modern. It was a period of optimism and hedonism, and a cultural revolution. One catalyst was the recovery of the...
" and in the US for the TV show "Bouton Rouge" at the Monterey International Pop Festival, the Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
, working with many major musicians, among them Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
, Cream
Cream (band)
Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker...
, The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
, Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
, Otis Redding
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...
, Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
, Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
, etc. Later on, this time as a War correspondent
War correspondent
A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories firsthand from a war zone. In the 19th century they were also called Special Correspondents.-Methods:...
, André accepted several "hard news" assignments to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
during the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to 25, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria...
and Saigon during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
After serving for one year as a director of several feature and documentary films in the French Army Cinema Service (ECPAD), André Weinfeld wrote and directed in 1976 his first feature short La Bonne Nouvelle (The Good News), with Claude Chabrol
Claude Chabrol
Claude Chabrol was a French film director, a member of the French New Wave group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s...
, Thomas Chabrol, Christine Boisson
Christine Boisson
Christine Boisson is a French actress.After she registered in a model agency, Just Jaeckin liked her photo, and she got a part in the film Emmanuelle starring Sylvia Kristel, in which she played a lollipop-sucking teenager who masturbates over a picture of Paul Newman...
, Michel Duchaussoy
Michel Duchaussoy
Michel Duchaussoy is a French film actor. He has appeared in 130 films since 1962.-Selected filmography:* The Killing Game * The Unfaithful Wife * This Man Must Die * Just Before Nightfall...
, Mary Marquet and Daniel Prévost
Daniel Prévost
Daniel Prévost is a French actor and humorist.Daniel Prevost is notably known for his part in the French television series Le Petit Rapporteur.-Early life and Family:...
, which was awarded the Grand Prize at the International London Film Festival
London Film Festival
The BFI London Film Festival is the UK's largest public film event, screening more than 300 features, documentaries and shorts from almost 50 countries. The festival, , currently in its 54th year, is run every year in the second half of October under the umbrella of the British Film Institute...
and thereafter distributed in France by Warner-Columbia.
André then worked as a screenwriter for several French Films, among them La Clé sur la porte
La Clé sur la porte
La Clé sur la porte is a novel written by Marie Cardinal and published in 1972. It is the story of a woman trying to reexamine her own values and free herself from social restraints after suffering a lifetime of oppression...
(1978) starring French actors Patrick Dewaere
Patrick Dewaere
Patrick Dewaere was a French film actor. He was born in Saint-Brieuc, Côtes-d'Armor, son of French actress Mado Maurin. His five siblings, Jean-Pierre Maurin , Yves-Marie Maurin , Dominique Maurin , Jean-Francois Maurin and Marie-Veronique Maurin Patrick Dewaere (26 January 1947 – 16 July 1982)...
and Annie Girardot
Annie Girardot
Annie Girardot was a French actress.She began performing in 1955, making her film debut in Treize à table. Girardot won the Prix Suzanne Bianchetti in 1956, and in 1977 won the César Award for Best Actress portraying the title character in Docteur Françoise Gailland...
.
American career
Having moved to live and work in the USA in 1977, André started his own Production and Video Distribution Company while producing, writing and directing "From Raquel With Love" (1980) a variety show TV Special with Raquel WelchRaquel Welch
Jo Raquel Tejada , better known as Raquel Welch, is an American actress, author and sex symbol. Welch came to attention as a "new-star" on the 20th Century-Fox lot in the mid-1960s. She posed iconically in a animal skin bikini for the British-release One Million Years B.C. , for which she may be...
, Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
and Douglas Fairbanks Jr..
He then went on to produce all of Raquel's National Tour and Live Concerts in Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
, Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe is a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. At a surface elevation of , it is located along the border between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America. Its depth is , making it the USA's second-deepest...
and Atlantic City and subsequently co-produced the Broadway Musical Woman of the Year
Woman of the Year
Woman of the Year is a romantic comedy film. The movie is about an emancipated woman, chosen "Woman of the Year", and her colleague-turned-husband and their efforts to negotiate a path to marital bliss....
by Fred Ebb
Fred Ebb
Fred Ebb was an American musical theatre lyricist who had many successful collaborations with composer John Kander. The Kander and Ebb team frequently wrote for such performers as Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera....
and John Kander
John Kander
John Harold Kander is the American composer of a number of musicals as part of the songwriting team of Kander and Ebb.-Life and career:Kander was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the son of Bernice and Harold S. Kander...
.
His work as a Commercial and Editorial Photographer for the Sygma Corbis
Corbis
Corbis Corporation is an American company, based in Seattle, Washington, that licenses the rights to photographs, footage and other visual media...
news agency has appeared worldwide on the covers and in the pages of Life magazine, Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, Time magazine, Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, Harper's Bazaar
Harper's Bazaar
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
, Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
, etc. His photographs have also been chosen to represent Hasselblad
Hasselblad
Victor Hasselblad AB is a Swedish manufacturer of medium-format cameras and photographic equipment based in Gothenburg, Sweden.The company is best known for the medium-format cameras it has produced since World War II....
's renowned professional camera products in one of that company's recent international advertising campaign. In 1984, he published and photographed Raquel’s best selling Fitness Book "Total Beauty and Fitness" and produced and directed her Fitness and Yoga videos.
Personal life
Having met actress Raquel WelchRaquel Welch
Jo Raquel Tejada , better known as Raquel Welch, is an American actress, author and sex symbol. Welch came to attention as a "new-star" on the 20th Century-Fox lot in the mid-1960s. She posed iconically in a animal skin bikini for the British-release One Million Years B.C. , for which she may be...
in Paris in 1977, André Weinfeld decided to move to Hollywood to join her. They eventually married in 1980.
Divorced from Raquel Welch in 1990, André Weinfeld is now living with his 17 year old son Zachary from his second marriage to American fashion model and songwriter Jaimie Lilly (from whom he is also divorced), sharing his time between Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. He is currently working on several film and multimedia projects both in France and the USA.