Leconte grew up in Tours , and began making little amateur films at 15 . He went to Paris in 1967 and studied at Institut des hautes études cinématographiques . While attending film school in the late 1960s , Leconte also worked as cartoonist , in particular for the Franco-Belgian comics magazine '' Pilote '' . He directed his first feature film in 1976 , and had a number of major successes with comedy films that were barely distributed outside France . He first came to international attention in 1989 with '' Monsieur Hire '' , which was shown at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival and which was a radical departure from his previous work . Although he had already directed more than half a dozen features , many foreign critics , unfamiliar with his previous work , essentially treated him as a newcomer . Since then , he has alternated between films such as '' Ridicule '' and '' L'homme du train '' which have had success in the international arthouse market , and others , like '' Les Grands Ducs '' , whose appeal has been limited to France . In the 2000s , Patrice Leconte received more recognition in the United States with the successful United States releases of '' Girl on the Bridge '' , '' The Widow of Saint-Pierre '' , '' Man on the Train '' and '' Intimate Strangers '' ( Paramount Classics released three of these films in the United States ) . Ryan Mottesheard of IndieWIRE wrote : " you could even argue that no other foreign filmmaker ( INCLUDING Pedro Almodóvar ) has had as strong of an impact on United States arthouses . " An English language remake of Leconte 's film '' Man on the Train '' was remade by an independent Hollywood studio in 2011 , and two others are in ' development ' : '' Intimate Strangers '' and '' My Best Friend ''
1989 Cannes Film Festival
1989 Cannes Film Festival
Patrice Leconte