In search of flamboyant French film producer Pierre Edelman
Long ReadIn the 1990s, producer Pierre Edelman knew everyone. His connections even allowed him to play a role in the making of some of the greatest films by David Lynch and Pedro Almodóvar. But the dandy in a white suit had a shadowy side, so much so that almost no one noticed when he disappeared.
Rue Robert-Estienne, a cul-de-sac in Paris's Champs-Elysées neighborhood, was where Pierre Edelman lived. Or rather, where he used to live. Since the spring of 2023, the producer has been nowhere to be found. Vanished. Unreachable. In March, journalist and essayist Guillaume Durand, accompanied by a longtime friend, went to the police station in Paris's 8th arrondissement to report his disappearance.
In one of his many lives, the man was a discreet yet essential figure in the world of cinema. Notably, he was a talent scout for Ciby 2000 – the now-defunct production company founded in 1990 by French construction magnate Francis Bouygues – and later at StudioCanal until the mid-2000s. Edelman's roster speaks for itself: David Lynch throughout the 1990s and 2000s, from Lost Highway (1997) to Mulholland Drive (2001); Pedro Almodóvar during the same period with High Heels (1991), The Flower of My Secret (1995) and All About My Mother (1999); Emir Kusturica, especially during his Palme d'Or win at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995 for Underground. To say that these directors, then at the height of their art, owe everything to Edelman would be an exaggeration. But without him, their careers clearly would not have been the same.
Edelman was a matchmaker, a high-level connector in a film industry where human relationships are crucial. He was close to Dennis Hopper, Francis Ford Coppola and Oliver Stone; vacationed in Saint-Tropez with Clint Eastwood; visited Marlon Brando in Tahiti; and stayed at Jack Nicholson's villa on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles.
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