Paul Paviot(1926-2017)

Though he later directed several full length films and numerous television programs, Paul Paviot is best known in France for his work on the comedy short subject, and his championing of the artistry of the short in general by helping to found, in 1953,the Group of Thirty to defend short attractions.Born in 1926, he studied still and moving picture photography in 1944 and spent some time in New York with the US Signal Corps as part of the campaign of Liberation.His discovery of that city's jazz clubs later paid off in the 1950s during his involvement with the trendy Red Rose night spot in Paris, which put on cabaret sketches, mimes and satires.He had started working as a set photographer during the making of several late 1940s French films and became friendly with the circle of the Prevert brothers, musician Kosma and designer Trauner.He put these connections and his experience with the American Way of Life and his links with upcoming actors such as Piccoli at the Red Rose to good effect with a series of three comedies spoofing Hollywood genre movies, which were so well received that they were later revived together, in 1965, as a trilogy length feature. One of Paviot's children, by his first wife Catherine O'Donnell, is producer Charles Paul Edouard Paviot.Beginning in the mid 1980s, Paviot turned his energy away from entertainment and into working on environmentalism.