As a child, Frédéric Jouve devoured the classics. His father, a professor of medicine and a cinemaphile, often took care of him and preferred that his son spend time with John Ford rather than Walt Disney. Even so, the young Jouve initially took a detour, studying physics and fluid mechanics, before changing course to reflect a more personal choice: film. While still in school, he began to hang around sets, trying out every job. A production company recruited him to produce a short subject. He went on to work at Moby Dick films, where he produced 10 shorts before setting up his own company, Les Films Velvets, named in honour of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet as well as the Velvet Underground, because in addition to his passion for film, Jouve is crazy about rock music. Erudite and bold, handling subtle interpretation as well as even more sophisticated ideas with disconcerting ease, he could have chosen directing, “but I prefer the shadow to the light,” he says, “and I’m not obsessive enough to devote two years of my life to a single project – I'm someone who needs a lot of variety.” So he became a producer instead, with huge ambitions that include producing a major adventure film along the lines of Apocalypse Now or Aguirre Wrath of God and walking away with the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2008!

AGE: 30 I PASSIONS: art in general, people in particular, and above all rock music, architecture and literature. I PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE: you never know where you're going but you always end up there. I GOALS: “To become rich and famous.” I FAVOURITE FILMS: Alain Corneau’s Série Noire, John Ford’s The Quiet Man, Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man and Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.