Henri-Georges Clouzot

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Henri-Georges Clouzot
Henri-Georges Clouzot in 1953
Born(1907-11-20)20 November 1907[1]
Niort, France
Died12 January 1977(1977-01-12) (aged 69)[2]
Paris, France
Occupations
Years active1931–1968
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1950; died 1960)​
Inès de Gonzalez
​
​
(m. 1963⁠–⁠1977)​

Henri-Georges Clouzot (French: [ɑ̃ʁi ʒɔʁʒ kluzo]; 20 November 1907 – 12 January 1977) was a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best remembered for his work in the thriller film genre, having directed The Wages of Fear (1953) and Les Diaboliques (1955), which are critically recognized as among the greatest films of the 1950s. He also directed documentary films, including The Mystery of Picasso (1956), which was declared a national treasure by the government of France.

Clouzot was an early fan of the cinema and, desiring a career as a writer, moved to Paris. He was later hired by producer

Nazi-occupied France as a screenwriter for the German-owned company Continental Films. At Continental, Clouzot wrote and directed films that were very popular. His second film Le Corbeau
drew controversy over its harsh look at provincial France, and he was fired from Continental before its release. As a result of his association with Continental, he was barred by the French government from filmmaking until 1947.

After the ban was lifted, Clouzot reestablished his reputation and popularity in France during the late 1940s with successful films including

La Vérité, his wife Véra died of a heart attack, and Clouzot's career suffered due to depression, illness and new critical views of films from the French New Wave
.

Clouzot's career became less active in later years, limited to a few

television documentaries
and two feature films in the 1960s. He wrote several unused scripts in the 1970s and died in Paris in 1977.

Biography

Early years

Henri-Georges Clouzot was born in

Studio Babelsberg in Berlin, translating scripts for foreign-language films shot there.[1][8]

Career

Screenwriting career (1931–1942)

Throughout the 1930s Clouzot worked by writing and translating scripts, dialogue and occasionally lyrics for over twenty films.

Jewish film producers such as Adolphe Osso and Pierre Lazareff.[1]

In 1935, Clouzot was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was sent first to Haute-Savoie and then to Switzerland, where he was bedridden for nearly five years in all.[10] Clouzot's time in the sanatorium would be very influential on his career. While bedridden, Clouzot read constantly and learned the mechanics of storytelling to help improve his scripts.[10] Clouzot also studied the fragile nature of the other people in the sanatorium.[1] Clouzot had little money during this period, and was provided with financial and moral support by his family and friends.[1] By the time Clouzot left the sanatorium and returned to Paris, World War II had broken out.[1][11] French cinema had changed because many of the producers he had known had fled France to escape Nazism.[1]

Clouzot's health problems kept him from military service.

mystery novel Six hommes morts (Six Dead Men).[11] Clouzot retitled the film Le Dernier des six, having been influenced by actress Suzy Delair while writing the script, allowing her to choose the name of the character she would play.[1]

Early directorial work (1942–1947)

After the success of Le Dernier de six, Clouzot was hired as the head of Continental's screenwriting division.[15] Clouzot began work on his second Steeman adaptation, which he would also direct, titled The Murderer Lives at Number 21. It starred Fresnay and Delair playing the same roles they had performed in Le Dernier de six.[16] Released in 1942, the film was popular with audiences and critics.[17] Clouzot's next film was Le Corbeau based on a true story about a woman who sent poison pen letters in 1922.[18] Grevin was against Clouzot making this film, stating that topic was "dangerous".[18] Le Corbeau would be the last film that Fresnay and Clouzot would work together on. Clouzot had used all possible means to try to anger the actor during the filming,[1] and after he quarreled with Fresnay's wife, Yvonne Printemps, Fresnay and Clouzot broke off their friendship.[12] Le Corbeau was a great success in France, with nearly 250,000 people having seen it in the first months of its initial release.[19] Le Corbeau was released in 1943 and generated controversy from the right-wing Vichy regime, the left-wing Resistance press and the Catholic Church.[20] The Catholic Church considered the film "painful and hard, constantly morbid in its complexity".[21] The Vichy press dubbed it the antithesis of the Révolution nationale and demanded it be banned due to its immoral values.[22] The anti-Nazi resistance press considered it Nazi propaganda because of its negative portrayal of the French populace.[23] Two days before the release of Le Corbeau, Continental films fired Clouzot.[1]

After the liberation of France, Clouzot and several other directors were tried in court for collaborating with the Germans.[18] For his sentence, Clouzot was forbidden from going on set of any film or from using a film camera for the rest of his life.[1][18] Clouzot received letters of support from filmmakers and artists Jean Cocteau, René Clair, Marcel Carné and Jean-Paul Sartre, who were against the ruling.[20] Clouzot's sentence was later shortened from life to two years. There is no official document making note of any apology or appeal.[18] During his two-year banishment from filming, Clouzot worked with one of his supporters, Jean-Paul Sartre, who had been one of the first people to defend Le Corbeau.[18]

Return to filmmaking and acclaim (1947–1960)

After Clouzot's ban was lifted, he reestablished his reputation and popularity during the late 1940s with films such as Quai des Orfèvres and Manon.[24] For Quai des Orfèvres, Clouzot asked the author Stanislas-André Steeman for a copy of his novel, Légitime défense, to adapt into a film. Clouzot started writing the script before the novel arrived for him to read.[1][25] Quai des Orfèvres was released in 1947 and was the fourth most popular film in France, drawing 5.5 million spectators in that year.[19] Clouzot directed and wrote two films that were released in 1949.[26] For Manon, he wanted to cast unknown actors. He scoured schools to find an actress for the lead role, and chose 17-year-old Cécile Aubry after viewing over 700 girls.[1] Manon was released in 1948 and was watched by 3.4 million filmgoers in France as well as winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.[19] Clouzot directed and wrote the short film Le Retour de Jean, which was part of the anthology film Return to Life.[26] Le Retour de Jean was influenced by the short period when Clouzot lived in Germany in the early 1930s and stars Louis Jouvet as a survivor of a concentration camp who finds a wounded Nazi war criminal whom he interrogates and tortures.[1][3] Clouzot's next film was the comedy Miquette et Sa Mère, which was a financial failure. During the film's production, Clouzot met Véra Gibson-Amado, whom he married on 15 January 1950.[1][19] Clouzot and Véra took a film crew with them to Véra's homeland in Brazil for their honeymoon, where Clouzot made his first attempt at directing a documentary film. The Brazilian government took issue with Clouzot filming the poverty of people in the favelas rather than the more picturesque parts of Brazil.[1] The film was never finished because the costs became too high. Clouzot became fascinated with the region and wrote a book, Le cheval des dieux, recounting his trip.[1][3]

Clouzot bought the rights to Les Diaboliques which halted Alfred Hitchcock's attempt to purchase them.[27]

Upon returning to France, he was offered a script written by

New York Film Critics Circle Award for best foreign film.[31] In this early and mid-1950s period, with the films The Wages of Fear and Les Diaboliques, Clouzot came to be fully embraced by international critics and audiences. Both films were screened and reviewed in America as well as in France, and were rated among the best thrillers of the decade.[24] In 1955, Clouzot directed the documentary The Mystery of Picasso, about the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso. The film follows Picasso drawing or painting 15 different works, all of which were intentionally destroyed following the film's production.[32] Clouzot and Picasso were old acquaintances, having met when Clouzot was 14.[1] The Mystery of Picasso won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, but was a financial failure in France, being seen by only 37,000 filmgoers during its initial run in 1956.[19][32] In 1984, the film was declared a national treasure by the government of France.[24]

Clouzot's next feature film was

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[36]

Later career and failing health (1960–1977)

Henri-Georges Clouzot's tomb at the Montmartre Cemetery.

Although Clouzot's reputation had grown internationally, he lost notability in French cinema due to rise of the

documentaries of Herbert von Karajan conducting Verdi's Requiem, Dvořák's New World Symphony, Schumann's 4th Symphony, Beethoven's 5th Symphony and Mozart's 5th Violin Concerto.[2][39][40] After production finished on the documentaries, Clouzot was able to finance his final picture.[2]

Clouzot's return to work reassured the doctors and insurers, and he returned to the film studio to make his final film La Prisonnière.

Indochina. He also planned to direct a pornographic film in 1974 for Francis Micheline, but the film was abandoned.[2][10] Clouzot's health grew worse and he required open-heart surgery in November 1976.[2] On 12 January 1977 Clouzot died in his apartment while listening to The Damnation of Faust. Clouzot is buried beside Véra in the Montmartre Cemetery.[1]

Personal life

In the late-1930s, Clouzot went to a cabaret show featuring entertainers Mistinguett and Suzy Delair at the Deus Anes Cabaret. Clouzot waited for Delair at the stage door and after meeting her, the two became a romantic couple for the next 12 years.[1][11][12] Clouzot had Delair star in two of his films, The Murderer Lives at Number 21 and Quai des Orfèvres.[42][43] Delair eventually left Clouzot after working with him on Quai des Orfèvres.[8]

Clouzot met his first wife

Vera Clouzot through actor Léo Lapara, who had minor parts in Le Retour de Jean and Quai des Orfèvres. Véra met Clouzot after divorcing Lapara and while working as a continuity assistant on Clouzot's Miquette et Sa Mère.[28] Clouzot named his production company after Véra and had her star in all three films made by the company: The Wages of Fear, Diabolique and Les Espions.[26] Véra also contributed to the script of La Vérité.[44] Véra Clouzot died of a heart attack shortly after the filming of La Vérité. Clouzot fell into a depression over her death.[1][2] After her funeral, he moved to Tahiti, but returned to France in December 1960.[2]

Clouzot met his second wife, Inès de Gonzalez, for the first time at a casting call for a film based on

Roman Catholicism.[39]

Style

With the exception of the comedy film Miquette et sa mère, every directorial feature of Clouzot involves deception, betrayal and violent deaths.[45] When basing screenplays on written work, Clouzot often changed the stories dramatically, using only key points of the original story. The author Stanislas-André Steeman, whom Clouzot worked with twice, said Clouzot would only "build something after having contemptuously demolished any resemblance to the original, purely for the ambition of effect".[46] When writing for his own features, Clouzot created characters that were usually corrupt and spineless, with the capacity for both good and evil within them.[1]

Clouzot was very demanding with his actors, and would often quarrel with them to get them in the mood he desired.[46] Suzy Delair recalled that Clouzot slapped her, but said of it, "So what? He slapped others as well...He was tough but I'm not about to complain".[17][47] Pierre Fresnay recalled that Clouzot "worked relentlessly, which made for a juicy spectacle...That's to say nothing for his taste of violence, which he never tried with me".[47] When Clouzot worked with Brigitte Bardot, one scene required her character to drool and sleep. He offered her powerful sleeping pills, saying they were aspirin; this led to her stomach having to be pumped.[1] Although he was harsh on his actors, he did not treat them fiercely off set. Delair recalled that off set there was an "innocence about him" that was not seen.[1]

Clouzot biographer Marc Godin suggested Clouzot's life provides clues to understanding his style as a filmmaker.[10] Clouzot was viewed by many of his collaborators as a pessimist, short-tempered, and almost always angry.[10] Brigitte Bardot described Clouzot as "a negative being, forever at odds with himself and the world around him".[12] His outlook on life is reflected in his own films that focus on the darker side of humanity.[10]

Legacy

Despite criticism following the arrival of the French New Wave, career retrospectives of Clouzot's work have been positive. Twenty years after his death, film critic Noël Herpe wrote in the French film journal Positif that "Les Diaboliques (just like Les Espions and La Verite) reveals a sterile and increasingly exaggerated urge to experiment with the powers of fiction".[48] Film historian Philipe Pilard wrote, "There is no doubt that if Clouzot had worked for Hollywood and applied the formulas of U.S. studios, today he would be lauded by the very critics who choose to ignore him".[48] Clouzot today is generally known for his thriller films The Wages of Fear and Diabolique.[10] Clouzot's ability in the genre led to comparisons with Alfred Hitchcock.[24][49][50] Clouzot respected Hitchcock's work, stating, "I admire him very much and am flattered when anyone compares a film of mine to his".[51]

Several of Clouzot's films have been remade since their original releases. Director

L'Enfer.[53] In 1996, an American remake of Les Diaboliques was released under the title Diabolique, starring Sharon Stone.[54]

Filmography

Main article: Henri-Georges Clouzot filmography

References

Notes

  1. ^
    ISBN 0-7800-2965-8
    .
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lloyd, Henri-Georges Clouzot, 8.
  3. ^ a b c d Fiona Watson, "Henri-Georges Clouzot," Senses of Cinema, May 2005, issue 36.
  4. ^ Bocquet, Henri-Georges Clouzot, 8.
  5. ^ a b c d Lloyd, Henri-Georges Clouzot, 5.
  6. ^ a b c Hayward, Les diaboliques, 1.
  7. ^ Mayne, Le corbeau, 21.
  8. ^ a b Hayward, Les diaboliques, 2.
  9. ^ Lloyd, Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1.
  10. ^
    ISBN 0-7800-2965-8
    .
  11. ^ a b c d e Mayne, Le corbeau, 22
  12. ^ a b c d e Lloyd, Henri-Georges Clouzot, 6.
  13. ^ a b Lloyd, Henri-Georges Clouzot, 2.
  14. ^ a b Lloyd, Henri-Georges Clouzot, 30
  15. ^ Mayne, Le corbeau, 1
  16. ^ Lloyd, Henri-Georges Clouzot, 35
  17. ^ a b Mayne, Le corbeau, 28.
  18. ^
    ISBN 0-7800-2786-8
    .
  19. ^ a b c d e f g Lloyd, Henri-Georges Clouzot, 3.
  20. ^ a b Back cover for Le Corbeau [1942], The Criterion Collection. New York City, 2004 (no. 227).
  21. ^ Mayne, Le corbeau, 73
  22. ^ Lanzoni, French Cinema, 123.
  23. ^ Lanzoni, French Cinema, 122.
  24. ^ a b c d e f Bruce Eder, "Henri-Georges Clouzot: Overview," AllMovie, accessed 16 August 2009.
  25. ^ Hayward, Les diaboliques, 115.
  26. ^ a b c Hayward, Les diaboliques, 116.
  27. ^ Hayward, Les diaboliques, 13.
  28. ^ a b c Lloyd, Henri-Georges Clouzot, 7.
  29. ^ "The Wages of Fear (1953)," The Criterion Collection, accessed 2 December 2009.
  30. ^ "Diabolique (1953)," The Criterion Collection, accessed 2 December 2009.
  31. ^ a b c Lloyd, Henri-Georges Clouzot, 4.
  32. ^
    Allmovie
    , accessed 17 August 2009.
  33. ^ Erickson, "Overview: Les Espions," Allmovie, accessed 2 December 2009.
  34. ^ Singer 2006, p. 54
  35. ^ "The Truth (1961)," Turner Classic Movies, accessed 2 December 2009.
  36. ^ "The 33rd Academy Awards (1961) Nominees and Winners," oscars.org, accessed 29 October 2011.
  37. ^ Hayward, Les diaboliques, 8.
  38. ^ Lesley Chow, "After the Surge" (November 2009), Bright Lights Film Journal, accessed 4 December 2009.
  39. ^ a b "Henri-Georges Clouzot (1907–1977)" (1 July 2008), Cinetom, accessed 14 April 2010.
  40. ^ Hayward, Les diaboliques, 117.
  41. ISSN 0024-3019
    .
  42. Allmovie
    , accessed 17 August 2009.
  43. Allmovie
    , accessed 17 August 2009.
  44. Allmovie
    , accessed 17 August 2009.
  45. ^ Lloyd, Henri-Georges Clouzot, 11.
  46. ^ a b Hayward, Les diaboliques, 3.
  47. ^ a b Mayne, Le corbeau, 29.
  48. ^ a b Lloyd, Henri-Georges Clouzot, 9.
  49. ^ Dan Schneider (18 December 2008), "Film Reviews: The Wages of Fear," accessed 19 August 2009.
  50. ^ Lloyd, Henri-Georges Clouzot, 10.
  51. ^ Chandler, It's Only a Movie, 239.
  52. ^ Lloyd, Henri-Georges Clouzot, 176
  53. Allmovie
    , accessed 20 August 2009.
  54. Allmovie
    , accessed 20 August 2009.

Bibliography

External links

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