Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#113568
of 909177 performers
Top 25%
Robert Favart works on quiet performance rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Robert Favart appears in 5 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Robert. Le Samouraï is the clearest case: a film rated 7.5 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are quiet performance, transformation, versatility. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for action, thriller, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Fred Zinnemann, Gérard Oury, Jean-Pierre Melville and others, Robert Favart helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Le Samouraï (1967) as Bartender · Le Cercle Rouge (1970) as Salesman at Mauboussin · The Day of the Jackal (1973) as Minister
Career snapshot
Ranked #113568 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
5
1967–1973
Career length
6 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
Le Samouraï
Average Nutevio score
7.1
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.8
Le Samouraï
Most frequent director
Jean-Pierre Melville
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Jean-Pierre Melville
Most common genre
Thriller
4 titles
Average runtime
2h 7m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.8
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.5
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1970s
7.2 average MV
The 1970s are where the work and the material meet. The Day of the Jackal, The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob, Le Cercle Rouge — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1970s
7.2
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1970s
7.5
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1960s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Le Samouraï, The Night of the Generals.
Most productive era
1970s
3 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1960s | 1970s |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.51 film | — |
| Action | — | 7.21 film |
| Thriller | 7.02 films | 7.32 films |
| Comedy | — | 7.11 film |
| Crime | 7.02 films | 7.31 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance · Career peak
1967Le Samouraï
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Bartender. 7.5 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
1973The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob
The current state of the argument, as Wedding Guest (uncredited).
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
5 of 5 films
as Bartender
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
as Salesman at Mauboussin
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
as Wedding Guest (uncredited)
Directed by Gérard Oury
as Employee at Airport (uncredited)
Directed by Anatole Litvak
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
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The defining work
#1
Bartender
Le Samouraï (1967)
Performance score7.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Bartender gives Robert Favart a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Salesman at Mauboussin
Le Cercle Rouge (1970)
Performance score7.2
Le Cercle Rouge asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Salesman at Mauboussin is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Minister
The Day of the Jackal (1973)
Performance score7.1
The Day of the Jackal asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Minister is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Wedding Guest (uncredited)
The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (1973)
Performance score7.0
The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Wedding Guest (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Bartender
Start here. Le Samouraï is the clearest statement of what Robert Favart does — accessible, 105 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Robert at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
The Night of the Generals (1967)
Keeps the crime register of Le Samouraï but asks for a colder reading of it.
Le Cercle Rouge (1970)
Keeps the crime register of The Night of the Generals but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Day of the Jackal (1973)
Keeps the thriller register of Le Cercle Rouge but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (1973)
A deliberate change of key after The Day of the Jackal — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Jean-Pierre Melville
Director
2 films together
Notably Le Samouraï
Anatole Litvak
Director
1 film together
Notably The Night of the Generals
Gérard Oury
Director
1 film together
Notably The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob
Fred Zinnemann
Director
1 film together
Notably The Day of the Jackal
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Jean-Pierre Melville
Director
2 films together · 7.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Le SamouraïFred Zinnemann
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Day of the JackalGérard Oury
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Mad Adventures of Rabbi JacobAnatole Litvak
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Night of the GeneralsSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Le Cercle Rouge
as Salesman at Mauboussin
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Le Samouraï
as Bartender
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Le Samouraï
as Bartender
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Night of the Generals
as Employee at Airport (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Le Samouraï
as Bartender
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Robert Favart has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Thriller Legend
Awarded
4 catalogue titles in thriller, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Le Samouraï
as Bartender
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Le Samouraï
as Bartender
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Le Samouraï
as Bartender
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Night of the Generals
as Employee at Airport (uncredited)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Day of the Jackal
as Minister
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Day of the Jackal
as Minister
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Le Samouraï
as Bartender
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Night of the Generals
as Employee at Airport (uncredited)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Built a career in the same territory: drama and thriller
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Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Christian Bale
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and thriller
Zach Grenier
Built a career in the same territory: crime and mystery
Richmond Arquette
Built a career in the same territory: crime and mystery
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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