Jean-Claude Carrière (born 17 September 1931, Colombières-sur-Orb, Hérault, France) is a screenwriter and actor. Alumnus of the École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud, he was a frequent collaborator with Luis Buñuel. He was president of La Fémis, the French state film school. He wrote a novel when he was 23 then was introduced to Jacques Tati who had him write short novels based on his films. Through Tati he meet Pierre Etaix who he wrote and directed several films with including Heureux Anniversaire that they won the academy award for. His nineteen year collaboration with Buñuel began with the film Diary of a Chambermaid (1964), for which he co-wrote the screenplay (with Buñuel) and also played the part of a village priest. Carrière and the director would collaborate on the scripts of nearly all Buñuel’s later films, including Belle de Jour (1967), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), The Phantom of Liberty (1974), That Obscure Object of Desire (1977) and The Milky Way (1969). He also wrote screenplays for The Tin Drum (1979), Danton (1983), The Return of Martin Guerre (1982), La dernière image (1986), The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), Valmont (1989), Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), Birth (2004), and Goya’s Ghosts, and co-wrote Max, Mon Amour (1986) with director Nagisa Oshima. He also collaborated with Peter Brook on a nine-hour stage version of the ancient Sanskrit epic The Mahabharata, and a five-hour film version. His work in television includes the series Les aventures de Robinson Crusoë (1964), a French-West German production much seen overseas. In 2006 he played the lead role in Macedonian-French movie “The Secret Book” (writen by Jordan Plevnes and Ljube Cvetanovski), directed by Vlado Cvetanovski.
Pronounced for Doctor Honoris Causa of University of audiovisual arts ESRA on 28.06.2011