Jacques Zanetti
Photography by Scott Benedict
Jacques Zanetti grew up in Paris in an emigrant Italian family. Zanetti was the youngest of 10 children and within this spectacular tribe, storytelling soon became a way of life.
At the age of 18, riding in a convertible with a friend Place du Trocadéro in Paris, he was stopped by Jean-Pierre Melville who wanted to remake Jean Renoir's 'La Chienne' and asked Jacques to star in it. This project never materialized but this fortuitous moment translated into an acting career which spanned almost two decades.
He starred in a dozen feature films (Y. Boisset’s Allons Z’enfants, Le Juge Fayart Dit Le Sheriff, A. Cayatte’s A Chacun Son Enfer, E. Scola’s La Nuit De Varennes, Jacqueline Veuve’s Parti Sans Laisser D’Adresse, Rene Gilson’s Ma Blonde Entends Tu Dans La Ville, La Brigade, and Juliette Et L’Air Du Temps, Bernard Paul’s Derniere Sortie Avant Roissy etc.) two TV series (Y. Allegret’s Graines d’Orties and Philippe Ducrest’s Le Corso Des Tireurs), some TV films, Les Petits Enfants Du Siecle, Les Joies De La famille Pinelli, Le Diable Dans Le Benitier. He also starred in several plays in theater and on television.
He taught acting at the Théâtre des Cinquantes (Andreas Voutsinas) in Paris, from 79 to 84. He was the manager of a French Production Film Company, Cineproduction, from 1977 to 1982. Cineproduction produced such films as I sent a letter to my love with Simone Signoret, Le sucre with Gérard Depardieu, La Clef Sur La Porte with Annie Girardot and several other films during that period.
In 1985, Jacques arrived to New York where he joined friend and sister Diahnne, and where he currently resides.
In the summer of 2005 he directed his first feature film in America, Lea (Soliloquy) that he wrote and produced as well, he wrote a novel, L’Instant, the following year (Lulu.com). After that, he directed two feature documentaries New York 45, about a group of friends from everywhere but also from New York living their life and dreams in the city… West Fourth, A Handball Story, on the underworld of the game of Handball (a New York street sport) featuring a hand full of its best players.
James Abbott Is Gone was completed in 2014.
Jacques Zanetti made another narrative feature Day After Day in February 2017
Best New York Film in Harlem International Film Festival May 2017
May 2020 (In Post-Production) She And He narrative feature.