Gaël Morel

Gaël Morel (born 25 September 1972) is a French film director, screenwriter and actor.

Life and career

Morel was born in Villefranche-sur-Saône, Rhône, France, a small town of 30,000 inhabitants outside Lyon. He also grew up in the nearby little village of Lacenas in the Villefranche district.

At the age of 15, Morel left home to pursue film studies in Lyon, and later moved to Paris. There he met acclaimed French director André Téchiné who cast him in the lead role of François in the multi César-winning 1994 film Les Roseaux sauvages which brought him to wider fame, earning much critical praise for his performance, and a 1995 César nomination for Most Promising Young Actor.

While his Wild Reeds co-stars Élodie Bouchez and Stéphane Rideau have both gone on to successful acting careers (he has often cast them in his own films), Morel has chosen to pursue a career behind the camera, as filmmaking has always been his passion.

Filmography

As actor

As director

Awards

Gaël

Gaël (Gallo: Gaèu) is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in northwestern France.

It lies southwest of Rennes between Saint-Méen-le-Grand and Mauron. In the 18th century, a fair was held twice a year in August and October.

Toponymy

Old versions of the place-name include Guadel in 799, Wadel in 816, Vadel in 851, Wael in 1096, Gael as soon as 1112.

Its Breton name is Gwazel, that comes directly from Wadel > Gwadel > Gwazel, in Breton intervocalic [d] becomes [z], like in mezo ″drunk″, Welsh meddw ″drunk″. In French intervocalic [d] disappears totally : Wadel > Wael (Latin cadena > French chaine > English chain) and initial Germanic w- became gu- [gʷ] (+ -a) before becoming simply [g] : Guadel > Gael (cf. Old French guarder > French garder, English guard). The symbol ë means in Modern French that the preceding a has to be pronounced : Ga-el [gaɛl] (not [gɛʲl])

Nevertherless the place-name is not from Breton but from Gallo-Romance Wadellu(m), derived of Old Low Franconian *wad ″ford″ > French gué ″ford″ (Old Norman wei > Norman vey, Picard, Walloon wez). There were always Gallo-Romance speaking communities east of Saint-Brieuc and the Breton languages disappears totally around Gaël in the Middle Ages to be replaced by Gallo.

Gaël (given name)

Gaël (feminine Gaëlle) is a French (Breton) given name. Its etymology is uncertain, it may be related to the ethnonym Gael (Goidel); alternatively, it may be a variant of the name Gwenhael (name of a 6th-century Breton saint).

While the popularltiy of the masculine name Gaël has been consistently at about rank 100 in France during the 2000s, the feminine name was at rank 100 in 2000 but has declined in popularity since, dropping below rank 400 by 2010. The masculine name Gael in the United States rose steeply in popularity during the 2000s; below rank 1,000 before 2002, it rose to rank 146 in 2012.

Gael also sees some use as a feminine given name in the United States, as a variant of Gail, Gayle (short form of Abigail).

People called Gaël (Gael)

Men:

Gál

Gál is a Hungarian surname. Notable people with the surname include:

See also