Flamboyant former culture minister and bad boy Frédéric Mitterrand dies age 76

Former culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand, a high-profile and sometimes controversial figure on France’s arts scene, died on Thursday in Paris at the age of 76 after several months battling cancer. 

French former culture minister Frederic Mitterrand smiles as he leaves on a scooter after the official handover ceremony with his succcessor on 17 May, 2012, at the Culture Ministry in Paris. AFP - THOMAS SAMSON

Mitterrand was the nephew of former Socialist president François Mitterrand, but his own foray into politics was short and not so sweet.

He served as culture minister from 2019 to 2012 under Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative government, having come to Sarkozy’s attention while head of the Villa Medici – the French Academy in Rome – in 2008.

During his time in office Mitterrand defended a contested law on controlling the downloading of cultural works on the internet, and he laid the first stones of the Mucem museum of civilisation in Marseille as well as the Philharmonie in Paris.

Fragments of a wall painting from the tomb of an Egyptian prince kept in Le Louvre museum were returned to Egypt under his watch, while he also supported the return of Maori skulls to New Zealand.

• France gives Maori heads back to New Zealand

Sarkozy was among the first to pay tribute to a “profoundly cultivated and sensitive man, singular, endearing, unclassifiable”.

Sarkozy wrote on X: “He was an enthusiastic and passionate minister for culture, carrying out his functions with panache and talent.”

Mitterrand’s films, books and programmes would remain “as testimonies for his love of art and culture”, Sarkozy added.

Mitterrand wrote about his three years in office in the diary-based La Récreation (The Recreation), published 2013, in which his sexual impulses were every bit as important as cultural events.

Frederic Mitterrand with Colombian singer Shakira after awarding her the medal of knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2012 in Cannes. AFP - VALERY HACHE

Stars and Screens

Born in Paris on 21 August, 1947 into a well-to-do family, Mitterrand studied political science at university. But his passion for the arts and cinema in particular took him on another path.

In 1971, aged just 22, he managed to find the funding to take over the L’Olympic movie theatre in Paris. Devoted largely to arthouse cinema, the venue became renowned for showing the works of major filmmakers such as Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu.

For more than a decade it became a go-to place for cinephiles, drag queens and the occasional film star or director. But financial mismanagement put an end to the adventure in 1986.

As a director, Mitterrand made his debut film From Somalia With Love in 1981, and in 1995 he won acclaim adapting the Puccini opera Madame Butterfly into a musical.

He later moved over to television and developed an inimitable style as host and producer of a number of cinema-themed shows such as Etoiles et Toiles (Stars and Screens) and the cult Du Côté de Chez Fred (Fred’s Way).

Frédéric Mitterrand (3rd from left) with other members of the Deauville Film Festival jury in September 2016. CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP

A Bad Life

Mitterrand was one of France’s first openly gay public figures and ministers, referring to himself as the “faggot nephew”.

He made a very public coming out in his 2005 loosely autobiographical novel La Mauvaise Vie (A Bad Life) in which the narrator referred to paying for sex with boys in the brothels of Bangkok.

The book sold more than 200,000 copies and caused little debate at the time, but a few months after joining the government in 2009 the far right seized on it.

Despite calls for his resignation, Mitterrand hung on to his post. He made a public statement admitting to paying for sex with men, but denied they were underage. He also dismissed claims that the book justified sex tourism.

Mitterrand had also come under criticism for his unwavering support for filmmaker Roman Polanski, who was found guilty by the US courts of raping a minor in 1977.

A number of social media posts on Friday were critical of tributes to Mitterrand, citing the passage in his book where he refers to feeling excited over "the ready availability of so many attractive young boys". 

"Paying tribute to a man of culture who has marked our era should not make us blind, or make us forget, what he admitted to in his book A Bad Life: his abuse of children," wrote #MeTooMedia on X. 

[Mort de Frédéric Mitterrand]

Rendre hommage à un homme de culture qui a traversé notre époque ne doit pas nous rendre aveugles, ni nous faire oublier ce qu’il assumait lui-même en l’écrivant dans « La mauvaise vie » : sa pédocriminalité. pic.twitter.com/GRLag3EQSs

— #MeTooMedia (@MeTooMedia_) March 22, 2024