Alain Berliner

Belgian-born filmmaker Alain Berliner grew up to be a proponent of "magical realism," a mixture of fantasy and the everyday pioneered by fellow countryman Andre Delvaux in the late 1960s and early 70s. ("Every time there's a plot point, it can be solved in a magical way. It's much more interesting than solving a situation in a Hollywood way.") After his first directing experience as a student convinced him he did not handle actors well, Berliner initially contented himself with writing, first for commercials and later for Belgian features and French TV. After co-scripting the very successful "Koko Flanel" (1990), he wrote and helmed the shorts "Le Jour du chat" (1991) and "Rose" (1993), and his sure handling of the latter's off-beat tale of a music teacher who falls in love with a flower pricked the interest of a French executive who thought he might possess the sensibility to helm what would become "Ma Vie en Rose/My Life in Pink" (1997), a sensitive story of gender confusion.