Also a director, Peploe was the screenwriter behind several of Bertolucci’s most internationally acclaimed films (to whom he was also related by marriage: Clare Peploe, his sister and a filmmaker herself, with whom Mark collaborated, was married to the Italian director). These included THE LAST EMPEROR, in 1987 (awarded nine Oscars, one of which for Peploe’s screenplay), THE SHELTERING SKY (1990), based on Paul Bowles’ novel, and LITTLE BUDDHA (1993). Prior to that, he penned the screenplay for Antonioni’s masterpiece THE PASSENGER (1975, the third of the director’s English-language films). He also wrote THE PIED PIPER (1972), the film Jacques Demy made in England, starring Donovan.
As a director, Mark Peploe – who began his career in documentary – made two feature films which can be considered cult classics: AFRAID OF THE DARK (1991), starring James Fox and Fanny Ardant, and the 1996 adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s VICTORY, with Willem Dafoe and Irène Jacob.
LEFFEST extends its condolences to his family, in particular to his daughter, Lola Peploe, who attended the festival in 2023 with her film GRANDMOTHER’S FOOTSTEPS — a co-winner of the Discoveries Section. The film is a dialogue with her grandmother Cloclo, a landscape painter, aesthetic nomad and free spirit, mother of Mark and Clare Peploe, both of whom appear in the film, as does Bernardo Bertolucci.