Jacques d'Ovidio

Biography

Jacques d’Ovidio was a French film and theatre set designer, a discreet yet essential figure of popular cinema from the 1960s to the 1980s. Born in Philippeville (now Skikda, in Algeria), he trained in set design before becoming a long‑standing member of French film crews. He worked on many notable films, collaborating with Georges Lautner, Georges Franju, Christian‑Jaque, Claude Confortès, and Patrice Leconte, for whom he created the sets of Les Bronzés (1978) and Les Bronzés font du ski (1979). His filmography reflects great versatility: comedies, political films, dramas, auteur cinema, and mainstream productions.

Alongside his film work, he also designed sets for the theatre, notably for several productions by Robert Hossein, including Julius Caesar (1985) and L’Affaire du courrier de Lyon (1987). Jacques d’Ovidio died in 1997 in Créteil, leaving behind a solid and varied body of work, representative of the craftsmanship of the great French set designers of his era.