Gérard Brach (23 July 1927 – 9 September 2006) was a French screenwriter best known for his collaborations with the film directors Roman Polanski and Jean-Jacques Annaud. He directed two movies: La Maison and Le Bateau sur l'herbe.
Biography
Brach was born in Montrouge, Paris, where he grew up in poverty. At the age of 16, he was persuaded by his family to enlist in the Charlemagne division of the Waffen-SS, reportedly witnessing action at the Battle of Königsberg towards the end of World War II. After the war, he contracted tuberculosis and ended up spending five years in a sanatorium, undergoing a series of operations that left him with only one lung. While a patient at the sanatorium he befriended the Dadaist poet Benjamin Péret, who introduced him to André Breton, author of the Surrealist Manifesto and a major influence on Brach's early work.
By the late 1950s Brach had entered the film industry, undertaking a number of roles – from acting in minor parts on several films to working as a runner for the producer Pierre Roustang.