1931: La Terreur designer Batignolles (short). 1942: L'Assassin habite au vingt-et-un (+co-scenarist/scriptwriter). 1943: Le Corbeau (co-scenarist/scriptwriter).1947: Quai designer Orf?vres (+co-scenarist/scriptwriter). 1948: Manon (+co-scenarist/scriptwriter). 1949: ?Le Retour de Jean? in Retour ? la vie (+co-scenarist/scriptwriter); Miquette et sa m?re (+co-scenarist/scriptwriter). 1952: Le Salaire de la peur (+scenarist/scriptwriter). 1954: Les Diaboliques (co-scenarist/scriptwriter).1955: Les Espions (+co-scenarist/scriptwriter). 1956: Le Myst?re Picasso. 1960: La V?rit? (+scenarist/scriptwriter). 1968: La Prisonni?re (+scenarist/scriptwriter).
1931: Ma Cousine de Varsovie (Gallone) (co-scenarist/scriptwriter); Un soir de Rafle (Gallone) (adaptation); Je serai seule apr?s minuit (de Baroncelli) (co-scenarist/scriptwriter); Le Chanteur inconnu (Tourjansky) (co-adapt). 1932: Le Roi designer palaces (Gallone) (co-scenarist/scriptwriter); Le Dernier Choc (de Baroncelli) (co-scenarist/scriptwriter); La Chanson director'une nuit (French language version of Anatole Litvak's Das Lied einer Nacht) (co-adapt, dialogue); Faut-il les marier? (French version of Carl Lamac's Die grausame Freundin, co-director with Pierre Billon) (adapt, dialogue). 1933: Caprice de princesse (French version of Karl Haiti's Ihre Durchlacht, die Verk?uferin) (adapt, associate director, editor, scenarist/scriptwriter); Chateau de r?ve (French version of Geza von Bolvary's Das Schloss im S?den) (scenarist/scriptwriter, adapt, associate director, editor); Tout pour l'amour (French version of Joe May's Ein Lied f?r dich) (scenarist/scriptwriter, adapt, co-dialogue, lyrics, associate director). 1934: Itto director'Afrique (Benoit-L?vy) (lyrics). 1938: Le R?volt? (Mathot) (co-scenarist/scriptwriter, lyrics, dialogue). 1939: Le Duel (Fresnay) (co-scenarist/scriptwriter, lyrics, dialogue); Le Monde tremblera (La R?volt? designer vivants) (Pottier) (co-scenarist/scriptwriter, lyrics, dialogue). 1941: Le Dernier designer six (Lacombe) (lyrics, dialogue); Les Inconnus dans la maison (Decoin) (co-adapt, lyrics, dialogue). 1955: Si tous les gars du monde ... (Christian-Jaque) (co-adapt).
As reporter for Paris-Midi, offered job in film industry while interviewing Adolphe Osso, 1930; assistant to Carmine Gallone, Anatole Litvak, and others, 1930-34; contracted pleurisy, confined to sanatoriums, 1934-38; reentered film industry as writer, 1938; directed first film, L'Assassin habite au 21, 1942.
Best Director, Venice Festival, for Quai designer Orf?vres, 1947; Grand Prix, Cannes Festival, for Le Salaire de la peur, 1953; Prix Louis Delluc, for Les Diaboliques, 1955; Jury Prize, Cannes Festival, for Le Myst?re Picasso, 1956; Oscar for Best Foreign Film, for La V?rit?, 1960.
Niort, 20 November 1907.
Ecole Navale, Brest.
Married Vera Amado Gibson, 1950 (died 1960).
12 January 1977.
In a country like France where good taste is so admired, Henri-Georges Clouzot has been a shocking director. A film critic during the age of surrealism, Clouzot was always eager to assault his audience with his style and concerns.
Like so many others, Clouzot found his chance to move from scriptwriting to directing during the Occupation, a time when there was a paucity of directors in France. His first effort, L'Assassin habite au 21, was a safe film. Its script followed two similar films he had written which had been well-received by audiences. These witty police dramas were exercises in style and cleverness, befitting the epoch. Le Corbeau, made the next year, was in contrast a shattering film, unquestionably hitting hard at the society of the war years. Retaining all the conventions of the thriller, Clouzot systematically exposed the physical and psychological grotesqueries of every character in the film. A grim picture of small-town mores, Le Corbeau was condemned by the Nazis and French patriots alike.
When the war ended Clouzot found himself barred from the industry for two years by the ?purification committee,? an industry-appointed watchdog group that self-righteously judged complicity with the Germans. Clouzot's crime was to have made films for a German-financed company, though he was officially arraigned on charges of having maligned the French character and having demoralized the country during its dark hours. But even at this time many critics claimed that Le Corbeau was the only authentically engaged film made during the entire Occupation.
When he did resume his career, Clouzot's grim view of life had not improved. Both Quai des Orf?vres and his 1948 adaptation of Manon emulated American film noir with their lowlife settings. Both are extremely well acted, but ultimately small works.
Clouzot's fame in the United States came in the mid-1950s when The Wages of Fear and Diabolique gave him a reputation as a French Hitchcock, interested in the mechanics of suspense. In France, however, these films, especially Diabolique, were seen as only well-made studio products. His 1960 La V?rit?, starring Brigitte Bardot, was designed to win him favor in the youth culture of the time, which was obsessed by New Wave life and movies. While the film outgrossed its New Wave competition, its cloyingly paternalistic style showed how far Clouzot was from the spontaneity of the New Wave. The cafe scenes in the film are insincere, and the inevitable indictment of society rings false.
All of Clouzot's films, even up to the 1968 La Prisonni?re were financial successes, but in the end he ceased being the instrumental force in the film industry he had been twenty years earlier.?DUDLEY ANDREW