Isabelle Adjani, Francis Huster, Jacques Weber, Daniel Auteuil, Denis Podalydès, Dominique Blanc, Jeanne Balibar, Isabelle Carré, Emmanuelle Devos, Edouard Baer, Audrey Tautou, Marina Hands… All of them attended his famous art training course dramatic. François Florent, founder of Cours Florent, died at Necker hospital in Paris following a long illness on Monday, September 27, his wife, Kanee Florent, announced to Agence France-Presse (AFP). He was 84 years old.
Born in Mulhouse in 1937 into an Alsatian Catholic family, François Eichholtzer adopted the name François Florent when he arrived in Paris in 1956 to study at the National School of Theater Arts and Techniques. The following year, he joined the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art, where he met René Simon, founder of the famous Cours Simon. It is through his contact that he understands that his real passion is teaching drama. He then became a professor in the conservatories of the arrondissements.
In 1967, he created the Cours Florent, which attracted aspiring actors from all over France. Many actors or comedians who have become big names in theater and cinema have gone through this school, which still remains today one of the best ways to enter the Conservatory or direct access to the profession.
Since 2011, Cours Florent has belonged to the private higher education group Galiléo Studiali. Corn “François Florent always chaired the last course of the free class competition”, Frédéric Montfort, current director of Cours Florent, told AFP. In 2008, the professor published This obscure clarity (Gallimard), a book of memories and reflections on the acting profession.
Touched by the wave #MeToo
At the beginning of the year, dozens of people demonstrated in front of the Cours Florent to denounce his “Silence” in the face of alleged abuse by some of its teachers, which the institution contested. The call for this sit-in was launched in support of an association to fight against violence in performing arts schools born in 2020, Les Callisto, and which in November had published a column on the blog of Mediapart, under the title of “Cours Florent, cours violent?” “. She accused the institution of being ” partner in crime “ systematic attacks, discrimination and humiliation against students.
www.lemonde.fr