Plagued by ill health for most of his life, Clouzot broke into films as a writer and assistant director in the early 1930s. He made his first feature, "L'assassin habite au 21" in 1941, but it was his second film, "Le Corbeau" (1942), that gained him both fame and notoriety. A mature suspense picture concerning the effects of a rash of poison-pen letters on a provincial town, it introduced a new talent. Its bleak view of French country life, however, combined with the fact that it was financed by a German company, led to Clouzot being briefly banned from filmmaking after the war.
He resumed his career in 1947 earning the reputation as the French master of suspense (or the French Hitchcock) with a number of adroitly handled thrillers including the brilliant noir suspenser and pessimistic character study, "The Wages of Fear" (1952) and equally bleak and shocking "Diabolique" (1955), both starring his wife Vera Clouzot. He also made the invaluable and highly entertaining document of the painter at work, "The Mystery of Picasso" (1956).
- Born:
November 20, 1907 in Niort, France
- Died:
January 12, 1977.
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Job Titles:
Director, Screenwriter, Assistant director, Journalist, Playwright, Secretary
Education
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Ecole Navale, Brest, France
Milestones
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1931 Joined Alphonse Osso s film company where he collaborated on film scripts, and worked as assistant to directors Anatole Litvak and E.A. Dupont
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1931 First feature as screenwriter (adaptor), Un soir de rafle
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1931 Short film directing debut, Le Terreur des Batignolles (also co-writer)
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1934 Wrote libretto to Maurice Yvain s opera, La Belle Histoire
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1941 Feature film directing debut, L assassin habite au 21/The Killer Lives at 21
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1942 Second feature, Le Corbeau/The Crow was banned after the liberation of France and Clouzot suspended from film activities for six months
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1947 Returned to filmmaking with Quai des Orfevres
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Became a newspaper reporter for Paris-Midi , then screenwriter and playwright in the late 1920s and early 30s
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Convalesced from pleurisy in Swiss sanatoriums
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Filmed concerts conducted by Herbert Von Karajan for television
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Served as associate director on four features, making French-language versions of German films in Berlin
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Served as secretary to politicians Louis Marin and Rene Dorin