Bernard Pivot
{{Short description|French journalist (1935–2024)}}
{{use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Bernard Pivot
| image = Bernard Pivot 1986.png
| caption = Pivot in 1986
| birth_name = Bernard Claude Pivot
| birth_date = {{birth date|1935|5|5|df=y}}
| birth_place = Lyon, France
| death_date = {{death date and age|2024|5|6|1935|5|5|df=y}}
| death_place = Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
| occupation = Journalist, television personality
| known for = TV host Apostrophes and Bouillon de culture
| education = Lycée Ampère
| alma_mater = University of Lyon
Centre de formation des journalistes
}}
Bernard Pivot ({{IPA|fr|bɛʁnaʁ pivo|lang}}; 5 May 1935 – 6 May 2024) was a French journalist, interviewer and host of cultural television programmes. He was chairman of the Académie Goncourt from 2014 to 2020.[http://www.lexpress.fr/culture/livre/bernard-pivot-president-de-l-academie-du-goncourt-le-destin-ne-se-refuse-pas_1312496.html Bernard Pivot président de l'Académie Goncourt: "Le destin ne se refuse pas"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140309084025/http://www.lexpress.fr/culture/livre/bernard-pivot-president-de-l-academie-du-goncourt-le-destin-ne-se-refuse-pas_1312496.html |date=9 March 2014 }}, L'Express.{{Cite web|title=A la tête de l'Académie|url=https://www.academiegoncourt.com/presidents-academie|access-date=2022-02-19|website=Académie Goncourt|language=fr|archive-date=19 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220219191726/https://www.academiegoncourt.com/presidents-academie|url-status=live}}{{cite journal |author= Nossiter, Adam |title= Bernard Pivot, Host of Influential French TV Show on Books, Dies at 89: For 15 years, French viewers watched Mr. Pivot on his weekly show, "Apostrophes," to decide what to read next |journal= The New York Times |date= May 9, 2024 |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/09/world/europe/bernard-pivot-dead.html |accessdate= 29 July 2024}}
Biography
Pivot was born in Lyon on 5 May 1935,{{cn|date=May 2024}} the son of two grocers. During World War II his father, Charles Pivot, was taken prisoner and his mother moved the family home to the village of Quincié-en-Beaujolais, where Bernard Pivot started school. In 1945 his father was released and the reunited family returned to Lyon. At age 10 Pivot went to a Catholic boarding school where he discovered a passion for sport, while he was more average at traditional school subjects, except French and history.{{cn|date=May 2024}}
After starting law studies in Lyon Pivot entered the Centre de formation des journalistes (CFJ) in Paris, where he met his future wife, Monique.{{cn|date=May 2024}} He graduated second in his class. After an internship at Le Progrès in Lyon, he studied economic journalism for a full year, and then joined the Figaro Littéraire in 1958.{{cn|date=May 2024}}
In 1970 he hosted a humorous daily radio programme . In 1971 the Figaro Littéraire closed and Pivot joined Le Figaro. He left in 1974 after a disagreement with Jean d'Ormesson. Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber invited him to start a new project, which led to the creation of a new magazine, Lire, a year later. Meanwhile, he had begun hosting a television programme in April 1973 called {{ill|Ouvrez les guillemets|fr}} on the First Channel of the ORTF. In 1974, the ORTF was dissolved and Pivot started his Apostrophes programme. Apostrophes was first broadcast on Antenne 2 on 10 January 1975, and ran until 1990.[https://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/23/style/chronicle-842990.html Chronicle by Susan Heller Anderson] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180727212459/https://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/23/style/chronicle-842990.html |date=27 July 2018 }}, The New York Times.[https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/05/books/french-tv-show-on-books-is-ending.html French TV Show on Books Is Ending] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171220144936/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/05/books/french-tv-show-on-books-is-ending.html |date=20 December 2017 }}, The New York Times. Pivot then created Bouillon de culture, with the aim of broadening people's interests beyond reading. However, he eventually returned to books.[https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/18/arts/arts-abroad-adopting-a-country-then-crashing-its-best-seller-list.html ARTS ABROAD; Adopting a Country, Then Crashing Its Best-Seller List] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527165238/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/18/arts/arts-abroad-adopting-a-country-then-crashing-its-best-seller-list.html |date=27 May 2015 }}, The New York Times.
Pivot died of cancer in Neuilly-sur-Seine, on 6 May 2024, at the age of 89.{{cite news|url = https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2024/05/06/bernard-pivot-journaliste-createur-d-apostrophes-est-mort_6231907_3382.html|title = Bernard Pivot, journaliste, créateur d'« Apostrophes », est mort|last = Rosseau|first = Christine|date = 6 May 2024|accessdate = 6 May 2024|newspaper = Le Monde|lang = fr|url-access = subscription|archive-date = 6 May 2024|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240506130911/https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2024/05/06/bernard-pivot-journaliste-createur-d-apostrophes-est-mort_6231907_3382.html|url-status = live}}
Spelling championships
File:Bernard Pivot.png in the 1980s. His father, Charles, is to the right, wearing a tricolour ribbon.]]
In 1985, Pivot created the Championnats d'orthographe ("Spelling Championships") with linguist Micheline Sommant,{{cite web |url=https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/quiz-quelle-note-auriez-vous-obtenue-a-cette-dictee-de-bernard-pivot-07-05-2024-TNFUUNBOSNA5HMPYEOQ2AFGCHU.php |website=Le Parisien |access-date=8 May 2024 |title=Quiz : Quelle note auriez-vous obtenue à cette dictée de Bernard Pivot ? |date=7 May 2024 }} which in 1992 became Championnats mondiaux d'orthographe ("World Spelling Championships"), then the Dicos d'or ("Golden Dictionaries") in 1993.{{cn|date=May 2024}}
Pivot and James Lipton
James Lipton was inspired to create Inside the Actors Studio by a chance viewing of a Pivot programme on cable TV. Lipton adapted Pivot's use of a Proust Questionnaire to one that he himself used at the end of each episode of Inside the Actors Studio.{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/10/arts/arts-abroad-venturing-outside-actors-studio-to-paris.html?pagewanted=all |title=Arts Abroad; Venturing Outside Actors Studio (to Paris) |work=The New York Times |date=10 September 2002 |access-date=27 July 2018 |archive-date=27 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180727212416/https://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/10/arts/arts-abroad-venturing-outside-actors-studio-to-paris.html?pagewanted=all |url-status=live |last1=Riding |first1=Alan }}
However, the question "If God exists, what would you like Him to tell you when you're dead?" was considered potentially offensive to US audiences and replaced by a more acceptable "If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?"{{cn|date=May 2024}}
Pivot became aware that Lipton was inspired by his questionnaire and invited him to appear on the final episode of Bouillon de culture.{{cite news |title=James Lipton's Hero, French Cinephile Bernard Pivot, on How He Helped Shape 'Inside the Actors Studio' |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/james-liptons-hero-how-he-helped-shape-inside-actors-studio-1282530/ |access-date=8 May 2024 |work=The Hollywood Reporter |date=4 March 2020}}
Television work
- {{ill|Ouvrez les guillemets|fr}} (1973–1974){{cite web |title=Bernard Pivot : Éléments de biographie |url=https://www.academiegoncourt.com/bernard-pivot |publisher=Académie Goncourt |access-date=8 May 2024}}
- Apostrophes (1975–1990)
- Bouillon de culture (1991–2001)
- {{ill|Double je (television show)|lt=Double je|fr|Double je (émission de télévision)}} (2002–2006)
Defence of paedophilia
On 26 November 1973, Pivot invited the paedophile novelist Tony Duvert onto his show Ouvrez les guillemets. Duvert refused, letting his editor and supporters Jérôme Lindon and Alain Robbe-Grillet promote his book.[https://www.ina.fr/video/CPF86628626 Ouvrez les guillemets : émission du 26 novembre 1973], INA.
In January 1975, Yves Berger, the literary director of Éditions Grasset and Pierre Sabbagh's cultural adviser on the 2nd channel of French television, persuaded Jacqueline Baudrier, in charge of the 1st channel, to replace Marc Gilbert's Italics with Pivot's Ouvrez les guillemets talk show.Édouard Brasey, L'effet Pivot, Éditions Ramsay, 1987, p. On 30 May 1975, he received Vladimir Nabokov, the author of Lolita on Apostrophes; on 12 December 1976, Michel Foucault, who criticised psychoanalysis and "contractual sexuality" based on consent or non-consent, with René Schérer, Guy Hocquenghem and François Châtelet; on 14 October 1983, Renaud Camus, defender of the paedophile cause;L’Infini, Gallimard, n° 59, automne 1997, "La Question pédophile". on 23 April 1982, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who described having ambiguous relations with children in kindergarten;[https://www.liberation.fr/checknews/2018/09/04/est-ce-que-l-ina-a-fait-disparaitre-les-propos-de-daniel-cohn-bendit-sur-la-sexualite-des-enfants_1676251 Est-ce que l'INA a fait disparaître les propos de Daniel Cohn-Bendit sur la sexualité des enfants ?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200104032920/https://www.liberation.fr/checknews/2018/09/04/est-ce-que-l-ina-a-fait-disparaitre-les-propos-de-daniel-cohn-bendit-sur-la-sexualite-des-enfants_1676251 |date=4 January 2020 }}, Libération. on 2 March 1990, Gabriel Matzneff, a noted paedophile{{Cite web|date=2021-02-20|title=Gabriel Matzneff: the paedophile who hid in plain sight|url=https://preview.spectator.co.uk/article/gabriel-matzneff-the-paedophile-who-hid-in-plain-sight|access-date=2022-02-19|website=The Spectator Australia|language=en-US|archive-date=19 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220219194728/https://preview.spectator.co.uk/article/gabriel-matzneff-the-paedophile-who-hid-in-plain-sight|url-status=live}} whose book Mes amours décomposés was highly criticised;[https://www.lesinrocks.com/inrocks.tv/lattrait-de-gabriel-matzneff-jeunes-enfants-etait-denonce-chez-pivot/ Quand l'attrait de Gabriel Matzneff pour les jeunes enfants était dénoncé chez Pivot] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190929042223/https://www.lesinrocks.com/inrocks.tv/lattrait-de-gabriel-matzneff-jeunes-enfants-etait-denonce-chez-pivot/ |date=29 September 2019 }}, Les Inrocks. on 23 February 2001, Catherine Dolto, to talk about the legalisation of paedophilia on Bouillon de Culture; and in 2005, Michel Tournier, whose references to paedophilia were published in La Pléiade in 2017.[http://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/2016/01/19/03004-20160119ARTFIG00161-michel-tournier-sous-la-loupe-de-bernard-pivot.php Michel Tournier sous la loupe de Bernard Pivot] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190929051139/http://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/2016/01/19/03004-20160119ARTFIG00161-michel-tournier-sous-la-loupe-de-bernard-pivot.php |date=29 September 2019 }}, Le Figaro.
On 17 March 2013, Pivot defended Alexandre Postel's book Un homme effacé, which described a man who owns explicit pictures of children on his computer,[https://www.lejdd.fr/Chroniques/Bernard-Pivot/Arrete-sur-images-596851Le Journal du dimanche Arrêté sur images]{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Le JDD. and on 30 October 2016, La Mauvaise vie by Frédéric Mitterrand, as a "brave book, very brave, a kind of secular confession where each confession, as in Georges Perec's "Je me souviens…", starts with "Je regrette…".[https://www.lejdd.fr/Chroniques/Bernard-Pivot/LIRE-Pivot-Frederic-Mitterrand-Je-regrette-820486 Frédéric Mitterrand : "Je regrette…", la chronique de Bernard Pivot] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190929044603/https://www.lejdd.fr/Chroniques/Bernard-Pivot/LIRE-Pivot-Frederic-Mitterrand-Je-regrette-820486 |date=29 September 2019 }}, Le Journal du Dimanche.
In 2017, neuropsychiatrist Louis Masquin, in the Catholic magazine La Croix, described the introduction of paedophilic literature on French television in Pivot's shows as the "reflection of the "paedophile adventure", "considered approximately normal".[https://www.la-croix.com/Debats/Forum-et-debats/Le-lent-changement-regard-societe-pedophilie-2017-04-04-1200837019 Le lent changement de regard de la société sur la pédophilie] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190929043237/https://www.la-croix.com/Debats/Forum-et-debats/Le-lent-changement-regard-societe-pedophilie-2017-04-04-1200837019 |date=29 September 2019 }}, La Croix.
In 2019, Pivot wrote on Twitter that "cardinals, bishops and priests who rape children don't believe in heaven or hell", criticising the influence of the Vatican II reform. In September 2019, he declared on Twitter: "In my generation, boys looked for little Swedish girls who had the reputation of being more open than French girls. I imagine our surprise, our fear, if we had approached a Greta Thunberg". Julien Bayou, from the environmentalist party Europe Écologie – Les Verts, replied: "You're talking about a minor" and French feminist Caroline de Haas asked him to delete his post,[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/01/greta-thunbergs-defiance-upsets-the-patriarchy-and-its-wonderful Greta Thunberg's defiance upsets the patriarchy – and it's wonderful] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191007172639/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/01/greta-thunbergs-defiance-upsets-the-patriarchy-and-its-wonderful |date=7 October 2019 }}, The Guardian. something he refused to do.[https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/entry/greta-thunberg-bernard-pivot-assume-son-tweet-sexiste_fr_5d8b2ae6e4b08f48f4ad00ee Bernard Pivot assume son tweet sexiste sur Greta Thunberg] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190925163318/https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/entry/greta-thunberg-bernard-pivot-assume-son-tweet-sexiste_fr_5d8b2ae6e4b08f48f4ad00ee |date=25 September 2019 }}, Huffington Post. He was immediately defended by far-right essayist Éric Zemmour.[http://www.adoxa.info/discours-eric-zemmour-a-la-convention-de-la-droite-retranscription-complete Discours d'Eric Zemmour à la convention de la droite] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191006181705/http://www.adoxa.info/discours-eric-zemmour-a-la-convention-de-la-droite-retranscription-complete |date=6 October 2019 }}, Adoxa. In December, Pivot apologised for allowing Gabriel Matzneff to describe his relationships with teenage girls and boys on his literary talk shows without challenging him.[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/27/french-publishing-boss-claims-she-was-groomed-at-age-14-by-acclaimed-author "French publishing boss claims she was groomed at age 14 by acclaimed author"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108184437/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/27/french-publishing-boss-claims-she-was-groomed-at-age-14-by-acclaimed-author |date=8 January 2020 }}, The Guardian.
In July 2021, Pivot posted a tweet about actress Françoise Arnoul, who had just died, in which he remarked that "young people in the 1950s dreamed about her breasts. But the ones seen in The Wreck were not hers. She confessed it to me on a broadcast. Still a minor, she was not allowed to be filmed naked."{{Cite web|url=https://www.ladepeche.fr/2021/07/22/ses-seins-ont-fait-rever-lhommage-de-bernard-pivot-a-francoise-arnoul-cree-le-malaise-9687062.php|title='Ses seins ont fait rêver' : l'Hommage de Bernard Pivot à l'actrice Françoise Arnoul crée le malaise|access-date=22 July 2021|archive-date=22 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210722165118/https://www.ladepeche.fr/2021/07/22/ses-seins-ont-fait-rever-lhommage-de-bernard-pivot-a-francoise-arnoul-cree-le-malaise-9687062.php|url-status=live}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{commons category|Bernard Pivot}}
- {{IMDb name|0686118}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pivot, Bernard}}
Category:20th-century French journalists
Category:21st-century French journalists
Category:French male journalists
Category:French television presenters
Category:French television talk show hosts
Category:Officers of the Order of Canada
Category:Knights of the National Order of Quebec
Category:French male non-fiction writers