François Ravard
Encyclopedia
François Ravard is a French record and film producer.
His father, who belongs to the team production of The Bald Soprano
(a play by Ionesco
), takes him backstage as a child. His vocation springs from there.
In 1975, at the Lycée Edgar Poe, FR meets Olivier Caudron - aka Olive - who introduces him to Jean-Louis Aubert
. The three of them become friends and come to share an apartment the year after, located avenue Frémiet, in Paris.
In November of this year, the four members of the band that will become Téléphone make an appearance on the American Center stage. François Ravard and Olive promote the gig by writing the graffiti "concert rock!" in the city.
A few months and dates later, FR becomes the band manager. He is "the fifth member", involved in the conception and graphic design of the album covers (he brings in Jean-Baptiste Mondino
, Lynn Goldsmith
, Franky Boy) as well as in the tour production. He chooses to sign Téléphone at Pathé Marconi, where he is in touch with Philippe Constantin, whose musical knowledge pleases him and who will become his closest friend. He also comes up with a certain view of the job by seeing the music publisher Jacques Wolfsohn.
Shortly after signing the contract at Pathé Marconi, in November 1977, the first Téléphone album is released. It goes Gold in a few months. The band has continued success and will sell millions of albums over the years.
In 1980 François Ravard runs himself the "Telephone Music" a publishing company. He is one of the first to invest money in video promo (with such director as Julian Temple who makes Argent trop cher and ça or Jean-Baptiste Mondino
Un autre mooned). Ravard declares international ambitions at Téléphone : he signs a deal with Virgin UK
, the Richard Branson
firm, and hires a British booking agent to get dates in France and in other countries. He manages the artistic direction.
François Ravard is doing as well A&R and turns toward Anglo-Saxon producers to make or produce albums : Mike Thorne, Martin Rushent
, Bob Ezrin
, Glynn Johns…
In 1985, due to internal tension, Téléphone stops. The five of them split up.
In the next months, Bertrand de Labbey (at the time in charge of the music department at Artmedia) gets in touch with him.
François Ravard joins Artmedia where he spends one year, from 1986 to 1987, taking care of his own artists (Jean-Louis Aubert
, Rita Mitsouko - whose he's the manager for one album The No Comprendo
) and brings others on board like Laurent Boutonnat
or Marie Trintignant
.
In 1987, François Ravard establishes his own movie production company R. Films. He produces some short films and three features movies: Divine enfant by Jean-Pierre Mocky
(1988), Stan the Flasher by Serge Gainsbourg
(1990), La Pagaille, de Pascal Thomas
(1991).
In 1994, while he shares office with Philippe Constantin, who introduced him to Marianne Faithfull
, Ravard becomes her impresario, manager and A&R person. He encourages the singer to increase her artistic collaborations in a wide range of interests, theater, cinema, recordings, tours, readings, …
Marianne Faithfull
gets the leading role in Black Rider
, directed by Robert Wilson
(music from Tom Waits
, libretto William Burroughs). François Ravard then works with her on the 20th Century Blues
album (Kurt Weill
and Bertold Brecht), followed by a worldwide one year tour: An Evening in the Weimar Republic. Marianne Faithfull
moves on recording Seven Deadly Sins. The show is set in numerous opera theaters all over the world, and triumphs at the Salzburg Festival.
For the Vagabond Ways
album, François Ravard gets the Roger Waters
song Flower Child and Elton John
For Wanting You. For the album Kissin' Time
, he brings into play Blur
, Billy Corgan
, Beck, Dave Stewart
and Jarvis Cocker
. As for Before the Poison
he imagines to get contributions from PJ Harvey
and Nick Cave
and wants Hal Willner
to direct Easy Come, Easy Go
(also Horses and High Heels (2011).
Regarding cinema, François Ravard is the co-producer of the Dream'in My Dream documentary, as well as Live In Hollywood. He encourages Marianne Faithfull
to work with Patrice Chéreau
(Intimacy) and Sofia Coppola
(Marie-Antoinette
) and many more.
Biography
François Ravard was born on April 26, 1957. His parents are Nadine Milhet and Jacques Ravard.His father, who belongs to the team production of The Bald Soprano
The Bald Soprano
La Cantatrice Chauve — translated from French as The Bald Soprano or The Bald Prima Donna — is the first play written by Franco-Romanian playwright Eugène Ionesco. Nicolas Bataille directed the premiere on May 11, 1950 at the Théâtre des Noctambules, Paris...
(a play by Ionesco
Eugène Ionesco
Eugène Ionesco was a Romanian and French playwright and dramatist, and one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd...
), takes him backstage as a child. His vocation springs from there.
In 1975, at the Lycée Edgar Poe, FR meets Olivier Caudron - aka Olive - who introduces him to Jean-Louis Aubert
Jean-Louis Aubert
Jean-Louis Aubert is a French guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has also composed music for the cinema and for television, including the soundtrack for the film I've Loved You So Long, starring Kristin Scott Thomas .In 1976, he co-founded the rock band Téléphone...
. The three of them become friends and come to share an apartment the year after, located avenue Frémiet, in Paris.
In November of this year, the four members of the band that will become Téléphone make an appearance on the American Center stage. François Ravard and Olive promote the gig by writing the graffiti "concert rock!" in the city.
A few months and dates later, FR becomes the band manager. He is "the fifth member", involved in the conception and graphic design of the album covers (he brings in Jean-Baptiste Mondino
Jean-Baptiste Mondino
Jean-Baptiste Mondino is a French fashion photographer and music video director. He has directed music videos for Madonna, David Bowie, Sting, Björk, Neneh Cherry and Les Rita Mitsouko...
, Lynn Goldsmith
Lynn Goldsmith
Lynn Goldsmith is an American recording artist, a film director and a celebrity portrait photographer. Her work has appeared on the covers and in publications in many countries for the past 35 years. She has done over 100 album covers...
, Franky Boy) as well as in the tour production. He chooses to sign Téléphone at Pathé Marconi, where he is in touch with Philippe Constantin, whose musical knowledge pleases him and who will become his closest friend. He also comes up with a certain view of the job by seeing the music publisher Jacques Wolfsohn.
Shortly after signing the contract at Pathé Marconi, in November 1977, the first Téléphone album is released. It goes Gold in a few months. The band has continued success and will sell millions of albums over the years.
In 1980 François Ravard runs himself the "Telephone Music" a publishing company. He is one of the first to invest money in video promo (with such director as Julian Temple who makes Argent trop cher and ça or Jean-Baptiste Mondino
Jean-Baptiste Mondino
Jean-Baptiste Mondino is a French fashion photographer and music video director. He has directed music videos for Madonna, David Bowie, Sting, Björk, Neneh Cherry and Les Rita Mitsouko...
Un autre mooned). Ravard declares international ambitions at Téléphone : he signs a deal with Virgin UK
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
, the Richard Branson
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies....
firm, and hires a British booking agent to get dates in France and in other countries. He manages the artistic direction.
François Ravard is doing as well A&R and turns toward Anglo-Saxon producers to make or produce albums : Mike Thorne, Martin Rushent
Martin Rushent
Martin Rushent was an English record producer, best known for his work with The Human League, The Stranglers and The Buzzcocks.- Early life :Rushent was born on 11 July 1948 in Enfield, Middlesex. His father was a car salesman...
, Bob Ezrin
Bob Ezrin
Robert Alan "Bob" Ezrin is a Canadian music producer and keyboardist, known for his work with artists including Alice Cooper, Kiss and Pink Floyd. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2004.-Biography:...
, Glynn Johns…
In 1985, due to internal tension, Téléphone stops. The five of them split up.
In the next months, Bertrand de Labbey (at the time in charge of the music department at Artmedia) gets in touch with him.
François Ravard joins Artmedia where he spends one year, from 1986 to 1987, taking care of his own artists (Jean-Louis Aubert
Jean-Louis Aubert
Jean-Louis Aubert is a French guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has also composed music for the cinema and for television, including the soundtrack for the film I've Loved You So Long, starring Kristin Scott Thomas .In 1976, he co-founded the rock band Téléphone...
, Rita Mitsouko - whose he's the manager for one album The No Comprendo
The No Comprendo
The No Comprendo is the second studio album by French musical duo Les Rita Mitsouko. The album is sometimes referred to as Les Rita Mitsouko Presentent The No Comprendo...
) and brings others on board like Laurent Boutonnat
Laurent Boutonnat
Laurent Pierre Marie Boutonnat is a French composer and film and music video director, best known as the songwriting partner of Mylène Farmer and the director of moody, provocative and literature-inspired music videos.- Career :...
or Marie Trintignant
Marie Trintignant
-Early life:She was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, the daughter of actor Jean-Louis Trintignant and his second wife Nadine Marquand. She first appeared on screen aged 4 in her mother's film, My Love, My Love. When Marie's baby sister Pauline died when Marie was 8, she became withdrawn and virtually...
.
In 1987, François Ravard establishes his own movie production company R. Films. He produces some short films and three features movies: Divine enfant by Jean-Pierre Mocky
Jean-Pierre Mocky
Jean-Pierre Mocky is the pseudonym of Jean-Paul Adam Mokiejewski, a French film director, actor, screenwriter and producer...
(1988), Stan the Flasher by Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg, born Lucien Ginsburg was a French singer-songwriter, actor and director. Gainsbourg's extremely varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize...
(1990), La Pagaille, de Pascal Thomas
Pascal Thomas
Pascal Thomas is a French screenwriter and film director.-Selected filmography:Director* La Dilettante * Mon petit doigt m'a dit... * L'heure zéro * Le crime est notre affaire -External links:...
(1991).
In 1994, while he shares office with Philippe Constantin, who introduced him to Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Evelyn Faithfull is an award-winning English singer, songwriter and actress whose career has spanned five decades....
, Ravard becomes her impresario, manager and A&R person. He encourages the singer to increase her artistic collaborations in a wide range of interests, theater, cinema, recordings, tours, readings, …
Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Evelyn Faithfull is an award-winning English singer, songwriter and actress whose career has spanned five decades....
gets the leading role in Black Rider
The Black Rider
The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets is a self-billed "musical fable" in the avant-garde tradition created through the collaboration of theatre director Robert Wilson, musician Tom Waits, and writer William S. Burroughs. Wilson was largely responsible for the design and direction....
, directed by Robert Wilson
Robert Wilson (director)
Robert Wilson is an American avant-garde stage director and playwright who has been called "[America]'s — or even the world's — foremost vanguard 'theater artist'". Over the course of his wide-ranging career, he has also worked as a choreographer, performer, painter, sculptor, video...
(music from Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
, libretto William Burroughs). François Ravard then works with her on the 20th Century Blues
20th Century Blues (Marianne Faithfull album)
20th Century Blues is a live 1996 album by British singer-actor Marianne Faithfull, in collaboration with pianist Paul Trueblood.-Track listing:-The songs:...
album (Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
and Bertold Brecht), followed by a worldwide one year tour: An Evening in the Weimar Republic. Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Evelyn Faithfull is an award-winning English singer, songwriter and actress whose career has spanned five decades....
moves on recording Seven Deadly Sins. The show is set in numerous opera theaters all over the world, and triumphs at the Salzburg Festival.
For the Vagabond Ways
Vagabond Ways
Vagabond Ways is a rock album by Marianne Faithfull. This is her first album of original material since A Secret Life . This work, produced by Daniel Lanois and Mark Howard, is a balladry-like extension of her then neo-cabaret persona, interpreting songs by herself and legendary songwriters of her...
album, François Ravard gets the Roger Waters
Roger Waters
George Roger Waters is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. He was a founding member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, serving as bassist and co-lead vocalist. Following the departure of bandmate Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became the band's lyricist, principal songwriter...
song Flower Child and Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
For Wanting You. For the album Kissin' Time
Kissin' Time
Kissin' Time is the 16th album by veteran British musician Marianne Faithfull.- Overview :After turns as a neo-cabaret/slow ballad crooner in previous works , Faithfull was eager to collaborate with contemporary musicians...
, he brings into play Blur
Blur (band)
Blur is an English alternative rock band. Formed in London in 1989 as Seymour, the group consists of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Blur's debut album Leisure incorporated the sounds of Madchester and shoegazing...
, Billy Corgan
Billy Corgan
William Patrick "Billy" Corgan, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional poet best known as the frontman and sole permanent member of The Smashing Pumpkins. Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago, Illinois in 1987, the band quickly gained steam with the...
, Beck, Dave Stewart
Dave Stewart
Dave Stewart may refer to:* Dave Stewart , former pitcher in Major League Baseball and 1989 World Series MVP* David A. Stewart , English musician and record producer best known for his work with Eurythmics...
and Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Branson Cocker is an English musician and frontman for the band Pulp. Through his work with the band, Cocker became a figurehead of the Britpop movement of the mid-1990s. Following Pulp's hiatus Cocker has led a successful solo career...
. As for Before the Poison
Before The Poison
Before the Poison is the 17th album by Marianne Faithfull, recorded in 2003 and released in 2005.- Overview :The album has a dark and fatalistic mood, which Faithfull attributes partially to the post-9/11 world....
he imagines to get contributions from PJ Harvey
PJ Harvey
Polly Jean Harvey is an English musician, singer-songwriter, composer and occasional artist. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments including piano, organ, bass, saxophone, and most recently, the autoharp.Harvey began her career in...
and Nick Cave
Nick Cave
Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...
and wants Hal Willner
Hal Willner
Hal Willner is an American music producer working in recording, films, TV and live events. He is best known for assembling tribute albums and events featuring a wide variety of artists and musical styles...
to direct Easy Come, Easy Go
Easy Come, Easy Go (Marianne Faithfull album)
Easy Come, Easy Go is a studio album of cover versions by English singer-songwriter Marianne Faithfull, which was released in the EU on 10 November 2008. The album is produced by Hal Willner and features guest appearances from a variety of musicians...
(also Horses and High Heels (2011).
Regarding cinema, François Ravard is the co-producer of the Dream'in My Dream documentary, as well as Live In Hollywood. He encourages Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Evelyn Faithfull is an award-winning English singer, songwriter and actress whose career has spanned five decades....
to work with Patrice Chéreau
Patrice Chéreau
Patrice Chéreau is a French opera and theatre director, filmmaker, actor, and producer.-Biography:Patrice Chéreau was born in Lézigné, Maine-et-Loire, and went to school in Paris. At a young age he became well-known to Parisian critics as director, actor, and stage manager of his high-school theatre...
(Intimacy) and Sofia Coppola
Sofia Coppola
Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American screenwriter, film director, actress, and producer.In 2003 she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation, and became the third woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing...
(Marie-Antoinette
Marie Antoinette (2006 film)
Marie Antoinette is a 2006 biographical film, written and directed by Sofia Coppola. It is very loosely based on the life of the Queen consort in the years leading up to the French Revolution. It won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design...
) and many more.
Albums with Téléphone
- Téléphone (1977)
- Crache ton venin (1979)
- Au cœur de la nuit (1980)
- Dure limite (1982)
- Un autre monde (1984)
Albums with Marianne Faithfull
- 20th Century Blues20th Century Blues (Marianne Faithfull album)20th Century Blues is a live 1996 album by British singer-actor Marianne Faithfull, in collaboration with pianist Paul Trueblood.-Track listing:-The songs:...
(1997) - Weill: The Seven Deadly Sins (1998)
- Vagabond WaysVagabond WaysVagabond Ways is a rock album by Marianne Faithfull. This is her first album of original material since A Secret Life . This work, produced by Daniel Lanois and Mark Howard, is a balladry-like extension of her then neo-cabaret persona, interpreting songs by herself and legendary songwriters of her...
(1999) - Kissin' TimeKissin' TimeKissin' Time is the 16th album by veteran British musician Marianne Faithfull.- Overview :After turns as a neo-cabaret/slow ballad crooner in previous works , Faithfull was eager to collaborate with contemporary musicians...
(2002) - Before the PoisonBefore The PoisonBefore the Poison is the 17th album by Marianne Faithfull, recorded in 2003 and released in 2005.- Overview :The album has a dark and fatalistic mood, which Faithfull attributes partially to the post-9/11 world....
(2004) - Live in Hollywood
- Live at the BBC (2008)
- Easy Come, Easy GoEasy Come, Easy Go (Marianne Faithfull album)Easy Come, Easy Go is a studio album of cover versions by English singer-songwriter Marianne Faithfull, which was released in the EU on 10 November 2008. The album is produced by Hal Willner and features guest appearances from a variety of musicians...
(2008) - Horses and High Heels (2011)
Music DVD with Marianne Faithfull
- Sings Kurt Weill - Montréal Jazz Festival (1997)
- Dreaming my dreams (1999)
- Live from The Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood (+ 1 CD) (2005)
Sources
- Filmography on the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- «The Secret World of Serge Gainsbourg», Vanity Fair, November 2007.