French opera, theater director Chereau dies at 68
Minister's comment that heavy smoker succumbed to lung cancer invokes resentment.
PARIS (AP) - Patrice Chereau, a celebrated French actor and director in film, theater and opera who was renowned for cutting-edge productions, has died, officials said Tuesday. He was 68.
Chereau died in Paris on Monday from complications related to cancer, said the Artmedia talent agency that represented him.
Impassioned by the performing arts at a young age, Chereau showed breadth as a director from his revolutionary production of Richard Wagner s Ring cycle at the 1976 Bayreuth Festival to his blood-soaked 16th-century period piece and biopic "Queen Margot," a 1994 film starring French icon Isabelle Adjani which won the Jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Chereau, who headed the Cannes jury in 2003, chalked up directing credits on dozens of plays and operas, plus 10 films
each of which was a "masterpiece," said French President Francois Hollande. Chereau s 2001 film "Intimacy", a love story, won the Golden Bear in Berlin.
"One of the greatest French artists has just died," Hollande said in a statement. "The world of culture is mourning."
Colleagues remembered Chereau for his intensity, the emotional depth that he required of his actors, and his penetrating gaze. His works often tackled themes of battles for justice and humanity.
When one of a country s most brilliant artists has just died, is it appropriate for a government minister to point out that the heavy smoker succumbed to lung cancer?
That was the question exercising France on Tuesday as the country mourned the loss to the disease of acclaimed film, theatre and opera director Patrice Chereau, at the age of 68.
Michele Delaunay, the minister for the elderly, sparked the debate after the announcement late Monday of Chereau s death due to what most French media described as a "long illness".
Delaunay, in contrast, tweeted: "Chereau dead as a result of lung cancer: is it not time for cigarettes to be locked away in a cabinet for poison and sold only in pharmacies."
The comment immediately triggered accusations on social media of the government health police exploiting a high-profile death for their own ends. "Inappropriate," "undignified" and "shameful" were among the critical responses that recurred.
The furore forced the minister to respond, which she did by pointing out that she was speaking out as a qualified doctor.
"I can no longer bear people dying because of tobacco," she wrote. "It is immensely sad to see, once again, a talented man struck down by a legal weapon."
Delaunay s call for cigarette sales to be restricted to pharmacies came as a proposal to do that for e-cigarettes was being discussed by the European Parliament. MEPs threw out the proposal on Tuesday but approved an anti-smoking bill.
