Jacky Goldberg, the French voice of American Comedy.
Having interviewed A-list celebrities, like Sam Raimi, Quentin Tarantino, Jodie Foster, Scarlett Johansson, Ryan Gosling, Russel Crowe, Samuel L. Jackson, or Sharon Stone, Jacky Goldberg is one of the most respected and influential entertainment and lifestyle journalists. Generating excitement about American cinema and television, Jacky provides his readers with a unique, inside look at the Hollywood film industry, and has given international recognition to numerous artists over the years.
Jacky Goldberg and I recently met at the famous Jon & Vinny's restaurant on Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles, the city's hottest area. During our conversation, we discussed his career and experience, and I'm delighted to share it with you today.
Originally from Saintes, a small town on the West Coast of France, Jacky Goldberg was introduced to the world of cinema at a young age, by his father Serge, a French teacher who was a fan of the Hollywood Golden Age. He would take him regularly to the movie club he had created himself. There, Jacky discovered all sorts of films on the big screen, especially westerns and American comedies, his two favorite genres.
The more fascinated Jacky became, the more he’d spent his days at the movie theater, and at the video stores, in pursuit of rare and strange films. Eager to understand the 7th art, and not just consume it, he also started to read specialized magazines, such as Les Inrockuptibles, Première or Les Cahiers du cinéma.
After studying Political Science and Journalism, Jacky Goldberg earned a bachelor's degree in cinema. In doing so, he wasn't only able to perfect his theoretical as well as practical knowledge, but also confirmed his desire to pursue a career in or around the movie industry. With the original aim of becoming a film producer, Jacky Goldberg worked as a Production Assistant, then created the film festival "Certains l'aiment court" that became an institution in the city of Lyon. He soon directed his very first short, The Enclave, film in 2007, which earned him numerous festival selections, including at Cannes.
That’s when he also started writing regularly about movies, publishing his opinions on a blog as well as in various online fanzines that opened their columns to him.
Making and producing films, writing about them, and creating places to showcase the ones I loved most, my passion for creating and sharing was already fully expressed during these formative years.
Little did he know, his favorite magazine would launch his successful career, years later.
After graduating in 2007, Jacky Goldberg applied for an internship at Les Inrockuptibles, the very same leading cultural magazine he used to read insatiably ever since he was a teenager. Jacky’s writing quickly caught the attention of the magazine's editor-in-chief, Jean-Marc Lalanne, who hired him immediately after his six-month internship.
His reviews of American movies, interviews with celebrities, and covering festivals such as Cannes, Toronto, Locarno, and Berlin, among others, made him stand out.
Asserting himself as an expert of American comedy In the late 2000s.
In the 2000s, the genre experienced a golden age, primarily thanks to Judd Apatow and his contemporaries (such as Seth Rogen, Steve Carrell, Will Ferrell, Lena Dunham, Kristen Wiig, and Jason Segel, among others).
At Les Inrockuptibles, Jacky devoted himself to tracking the evolution of comedy in the American film industry, and introduced the genre to a vastly oblivious French audience.
In addition to his reviews, in 2009 Jacky Goldberg founded a film club in Paris, The Thursday Night Live, which broadcasted a new American comedy every month for five years. His actions carried on the legacy of his father, who cherished nothing more than sharing his love of cinema with audiences.
As Jacky Goldberg is more than a journalist and understands every aspect of the film industry, he is often invited to give lectures : he spoke at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris about the connections between American comedy and Jewish culture, at the Universities of Paris 3 and La Sorbonne Nouvelle, he shared his expertise and vision of film journalism, and at High Point University in North Carolina, he discussed his career and various aspects of his job.
A celebrity giving the spotlight to other celebrities.
Eager to share more with the people he met, he inspired, and wrote about, Jacky regularly participated in TV shows and documentaries (Canal+), and co-wrote a book about the evolution of French comedy, exploring its connections with its American counterpart in 2019. In every household, his name became a reference.
After a visit in Los Angeles in 2011 to interview the director of Spiderman, Sam Raimi, Jacky Goldberg returned the following year to write his first major story in the US for Les Inrockuptibles : an investigation aiming to take the pulse of the Hollywood industry, at a pivotal moment in its history.
In 2013, he settled in Los Angeles as a U.S. correspondent for Les Inrockuptibles. The articles he wrote attracted major international publications (Vanity Fair, GQ, Vogue, Elle...), which have been regularly commissioning him to write articles, and to conduct interviews with Hollywood’s most respected celebrities : Quentin Tarantino opened the doors of his house twice for Jacky (first, for an article for Les Inrocks in 2015 and later for an article for Vanity Fair in 2016). Jacky also interviewed Jodie Foster at length about her career (for Vogue in 2016), which was followed by an interview with Scarlett Johansson on the set of Ghost in the Shell in New Zealand (for GQ in 2017). He also has covered the work of some of the world’s greatest actors, like Ryan Gosling, Russel Crowe, and Samuel L. Jackson for GQ. Not to mention, more recently while working on behalf of Elle France in 2021, Jacky Goldberg conducted the only interview given by Sharon Stone to a French media outlet for the release of her autobiography.
A well-known entertainment writer, Jacky Goldberg still writes with such passion about the films he loves. He pursues filmmaking, working on a project about another great American comic (of which he prefers not to display the name before the project if firmly confirmed), conceived as a follow-up of his 2014 Judd Apatow documentary, This is Comedy. He’s also editing a short narrative he shot in January 2022 in France. A film about two conspiracy theorists dating for the first time, trying to balance their desire and their paranoia for each other. With this comedy, his first one, he hopes to make sense (and fun!) of a very contemporary phenomenon. And to delve into his revered genre, not as a commentator this time, but as a practitioner. Taking a look at his career path to becoming known as the French authority on American comedy, we can see what made him stand out. I am looking forward to watching Jacky Goldberg's upcoming films and seeing how he will keep sharing his passion with the world and the next generation.
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