Gilles Carle, OC GOQ (July 31, 1928[1] – November 28, 2009) was a French Canadian director, screenwriter and painter.
Gilles Carle, who was a key figure in the development of a commercial Quebec cinema, worked as a graphic artist and writer before he joined the National Film Board of Canada in 1960.
His innovative debut feature, La Vie heureuse de Léopold Z., tracked the adventures of a snowplough operator during a madcap Christmas Eve.
The quirkily paced, proto-feminist La Vraie Nature de Bernadette – widely regarded as his best film – and Le Mort d’un bûcheron eventually led to the more mainstream but graceful Les Plouffe and the epic love story Maria Chapdelaine, both classics of Quebec cinema.
[8] Carle died aged 81 on November 28, 2009, of complications from Parkinson's disease at the hospital in Granby, Quebec.