Philippe Bérenger

Philippe Bérenger began his artistic career with music, starting a rock band in school. Singing and composing, he toured for 2 years before going solo as a lead singer in NYC and Minneapolis, at the age of 21. When he came back to his hometown (Aix-en-Provence), he had the opportunity to go on a movie set. He decided to leave again, for Paris this time, to become a director. Soon, he became an assistant director for several French movie directors, but mainly for Bertrand Tavernier (his « cinema dad ») on Round midnight, La passion Béatrice and La vie et rien d’autre... He also assisted Milos Forman on Valmont. In 1993, he wrote and then directed his first feature film Méditerranées starring Vincent Cassel, Monica Bellucci, Enrico Lo Verso and Richard Bohringer. He did another film later, a comedy titled On fait comme on a dit, starring Gad Elmaleh. Meanwhile, TV producers asked him to write and/or direct exciting projects such as an episode of Maigret in Praha. Very fond of history, he directed several films of the 19th century’s Maupassant collection (Boule de suif for example), then four movies from the Nicolas le Floch collection (a policeman in the 18th century). 

He adapted and shot the poem Le Cahier du retour au pays natal by Aimé Césaire, he wrote and shot a documentary about André Gillois (a great man close to General De Gaulle who’s been a major man of the dark of the 20th century), and also found the time to write a thriller about terrorism titled Les ombres. He’s just finished a thriller from the Alex Hugo collection with French actor Samuel le Bihan. Fan of all arts, Age of Iron gave him the opportunity of mixing fiction, documentary, painting and music in one beautiful and very exciting project.