Philippe de Broca, 71, Directed ‘King of Hearts’
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Philippe de Broca, who died Friday at 71, directed some of the best-loved comedies in French cinema during the 1960s, including “L’homme de Rio” (The Man from Rio) in 1963, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, and “Le Roi de Coeur” (The King of Hearts), a 1966 anti-war film. In it, asylum inmates take over a village during wartime and anoint a British soldier, played by Alan Bates, as king.
He went on to make more than 30 movies in his more than 40-year career.
De Broca worked as an assistant to Claude Chabrol and Francois Truffaut before becoming known for his own eccentric comedies.