GOOD BYE NORMAN

I had the chance and the pleasure to take your courses when I was a student, and you taught me everything about screenwriting and editing. You were saying we needed good stories, with a good beginning and a good ending. I have always followed this advice, and perhaps that is why I won a Grand Literary Prize awarded by the public. Indeed, many people like the beginnings and endings of my novels.

I remember how anxious I was at the idea of meeting the Great Norman Jewison a few days before the start of classes, and my surprise to see enter the room a rather small man with a simplicity equal to his talent.

You were good humor personified: always with a smile. I was also fascinated by your confidence, and the confidence you had in those you trained to be better than you: that the student surpasses the master, that was your motto.

I remember memorable filming nights where you let your students film… you talked with everyone, without even looking at what they were doing!

It is you who discovered and gave a chance to Faye Dunaway with Steve McQueen in your masterful version of the Thomas Crown affair. The remakes that followed were never able to offer the magic that you instilled in this film and which fascinated me so much at the time.

Even though you didn’t talk about it and that only a few people knew it, you were proud of having been the first director to get the “Final Cut” from the Hollywood studios (making your own film without anyone involved in editing).

New generations will remember your films, of course, but you taught much more: generosity in all areas of life. Constantly turned towards others, you were the antithesis of egocentrism.

Farewell my Mentor, My friend.