Nicolas Altmayer, producer of hit French comedies, dies at 61

Alongside his older brother Eric, Nicolas Altmayer was a discreet yet influential figure in French cinema over the past 30 years. The successful duo ran the production company Mandarin & Compagnie, formerly Mandarin Films, which produced several popular hit comedies, including Brice de Nice (The Brice Man, 2005), directed by James Huth, and the OSS 117 trilogy (2006, 2009 and 2021). Altmayer, a father of four, died at 61 after a car crash on Monday, August 17, in western France. His partner, Mathilde Favier, Dior's director of public relations, also died in the crash. She was 57. The tragedy occurred when their car, while overtaking another vehicle, collided head-on with a truck traveling in the opposite direction.

The son of a real estate agent and a stay-at-home mother, Altmayer grew up in a bourgeois Catholic family of six children. His love of cinema developed through experience. He liked to say he belonged to the "VHS generation" and the era of Sunday night movies. He chose cinema after studying economics and decided to dedicate himself fully to the industry. He got his start as chief financial officer for producer Jean-François Lepetit, best known for Trois hommes et un couffin (Three Men and a Cradle, 1985), directed by Coline Serreau. He later partnered with his brother Eric, who was more talkative and often in the spotlight. After a first joint venture on the comedy XY, drôle de conception ("XY, what a strange design," 1996), they launched their production company in Paris in 1995.

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