First feature as assistant director, Yves Allegret's "L'ambitieuse"

Feature directing debut, "The Sleeping Car Murders"

Received two Oscar nominations (Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay) for "Z"

Made commericals for TV-Hachette

Film acting debut in "La vie devant soi/Madame Rosa"

First US-produced film, "Missing"; won Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (shared with Donald Stewart)

Took over directorship of Cinematheque Francais

Acted in John Landis' "Spies Like Us", portraying a Tadzhic Highway Patrolman

First collaboration with screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, "Betrayed"

Reteamed with Eszterhas for "Music Box"

One of 30 French filmmakers who delivered their short pleas on behalf of people who had suffered human rights violations in the documentary "Lest We Forget"

"Mad City" disappeared quickly from theaters

Engendered controversy in Europe with "Amen.", a drama about two men, real-life German soldier Kurt Gerstein and a fictionalized priest, who attempt to warn the world about the Nazis' plan to exterminate Jews during WWII