Biography
French actor Philippe Demarle works primarily in theater, where he moves easily from the classical work of Molière and Shakespeare to complex modernist plays by the likes of Sam Shepard and Eugene Ionesco. Focusing primarily on his stage work, Demarle has, like many actors, supplemented his earnings with occasional film and television roles. His first movie work was a supporting role in "Disorder," an early film by cult French director Olivier Assayas about a young rock band wracked with guilt when a burglary they commit goes violently awry; later films include Sólveig Anspach's drama "Haut Les Coeurs," the World War I period piece "L'instinct de l'ange," starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, and Michael Haneke's acclaimed drama "Code Unknown: Incomplete Tales of Several Journeys," with Juliette Binoche. Demarle also regularly appeared in guest spots on popular French TV shows during this era; a six-episode stint on the hit thriller "Novacek" raised his profile enough for his television roles to become meatier. One of his biggest roles came in the 2003 TV movie "Leclerc, un rêve d'Indochine (Leclerc, A Dream of Indochina)," an impressionistic tale of French Colonialism in the early 20th century that was co-written by Nicolas Sarkozy, who later became president of France.
