DUVIVIER, Julien

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Nationality: French. Born: Lille, 8 October 1896. Education: Lille University; studied acting in Paris. Career: Worked in André Antoine's Théâtre Libre, then assistant to Antoine as filmmaker, 1916; directed first film, Haceldama ou Le Prix du Sang, 1919; joined "Film d'Art" of Marcel Vandal and Charles Delac, 1925; made The Great Waltz for MGM, Hollywood, 1938; moved to United States, 1940; returned to France, 1945. Died: In auto accident, 26 October 1967.

Films as Director:

1919

Haceldama ou Le Prix du Sang (+ sc)

1920

La Réincarnation de Serge Renaudier (negative destroyed by fire before film shown) (+ sc)

1922

Les Roquevillard (+ sc); L'Ouragan sur la montagne (+ sc); Der unheimliche Gast (Le Logis de l'horreur) (+ sc)

1923

Le Reflet de Claude Mercoeur (+ sc)

1924

Credo ou La Tragédie de Lourdes (+ sc); Coeurs farouches (+ sc); La Machine à refaire la vie (re-released with sound, 1933) (co-d, sc); L'Oeuvre immortelle (+ sc)

1925

L'Abbé Constantin (+ sc); Poil de carotte (+ co-sc)

1926

L'Agonie de Jerusalem (+ sc); L'Homme à l'Hispano

1927

Le Mariage de Mademoiselle Beulemans (+ sc); Le Mystère de la Tour Eiffel (+ sc)

1928

Le Tourbillon de Paris

1929

La Divine croisière (+ sc); Maman Colibri (+ co-sc); La Vie miraculeuse de Thérèse Martin (+ sc); Au bonheur des dames (+ co-sc)

(Sound films):

1930

David Golder (+ sc)

1931

Les Cinq Gentlemen maudits (+ sc); Allo Berlin? Ici Paris! (Hallo! Hallo! Hier spricht Berlin) (+ sc); Die funf verfluchten Gentlemen (German version) (+ sc)

1932

Poil de carotte (remake) (+ sc); La Tête d'un homme (+ co-sc)

1933

Le Petit Roi (+ sc); Le Paquebot 'Tenacity' (+ co-sc)

1934

Maria Chapdelaine (+ sc)

1935

Golgotha (+ sc, adapt); La Bandera (+ co-sc)

1936

L'Homme du jour (+ co-sc); Golem (Le Golem) (+ co-sc); La Belle Équipe (+ co-sc)

1937

Pépé-le-Moko (+ co-sc); Un Carnet de bal (+ sc)

1938

The Great Waltz (Toute la ville danse) (+ sc); La Fin du jour (+ co-sc): Marie Antoinette (Van Dyke, d uncredited, sc)

1939

La Charrette Fantôme (+ sc)

1940

Untel père et fils (+ co-sc)

1941

Lydia (+ sc, co-story)

1942

Tales of Manhattan (+ co-sc)

1943

Flesh and Fantasy (+ co-pr)

1944

The Imposter (+ sc)

1946

Panique (+ co-sc)

1948

Anna Karenina (+ co-sc)

1949

Au royaume des cieux (+ sc, pr)

1950

Black Jack (+ co-sc, pr); Sous le ciel de Paris (+ co-sc)

1951

Le Petit Monde de Don Camillo (Il piccolo mondo di Don Camillo) (+ co-sc)

1952

La Fête à Henriette (+ co-sc)

1953

Le Retour de Don Camillo (Il ritorno di Don Camillo) (+ co-sc)

1954

L'Affaire Maurizius (+ sc)

1955

Marianne de ma jeunesse (+ sc)

1956

Voice le temps des assassins (+ co-sc)

1957

L'Homme à l'imperméable (+ co-sc); Pot Bouille (+ co-sc)

1958

La Femme et le pantin (+ sc, co-adapt)

1959

Marie Octobre (+ co-sc)

1960

Das kunstseidene Mädchen (La Grande Vie) (+ co-sc); Boulevard (+ co-sc)

1962

La Chambre ardente (+ co-sc); Le Diable et les dix commandements (+ co-sc)

1963

Chair de poule (+ co-sc)

1967

Diaboliquement vôtre (+ sc, co-adapt)

Other Films:

1918

Les Travailleurs de la mer (Antoine) (asst d)

1920

L'Agonie des aigles (Bernard-Deschamps) (adaptation); La Terre (Antoine) (asst d)

1921

Crépuscule d'épouvante (Etiévant) (sc)

1922

L'Arlésienne (Antoine) (asst d)

1924

La Nuit de la revanche (Etiévant) (story)

1946

Collège swing (Amours, délices et orgues) (Berthomieu) (co-sc)

Publications

By DUVIVIER: articles—

"Un Réalisateur compare deux méthodes," interview with Pierre Leprohon, in Cinémonde (Paris), 6 May 1946.

"De la création à la mise en scène," in Cinémonde (Paris), Christmas 1946.

"Julien Duvivier: 'Pourquoi j'ai trahi Zola,"' interview with Yvonne Baby, in Lettres Françaises (Paris), 31 October 1957.

Reminiscences in Avant-Scène du Cinéma (Paris), 1 February 1977.

On DUVIVIER: books—

Chirat, Raymond, Julien Duvivier, Lyon, 1968.

Leprohon, Pierre, "Julien Duvivier," in Anthologie du cinéma, vol. 4, Paris, 1969.

On DUVIVIER: articles—

Aubriant, Michel, "Julien Duvivier," in Cinémonde (Paris), 28 November 1952.

"Débat sur Duvivier," in Arts (Paris), 18 April 1956.

Epstein, Marie, "Comment ils travaillent? Julien Duvivier," in Technique Cinématographique (Paris), December 1958.

Marcabru, P., "Les Français à Hollywood," in Arts (Paris), 8 February 1961.

Obituary in New York Times, 30 October 1967.

Renoir, Jean, "Duvivier, le professionel," in Le Figaro Littéraire (Paris), 6 November 1967.

Amengual, Barthélemy, "Défense de Duvivier," in Cahiers de laCinémathèque (Perpignan), Spring 1975.

"Pépé le Moko Issue" of Avant-Scène du Cinéma (Paris), 1 June 1981.

Simsolo, Noel, "A propos de Julien Duvivier," in Image et Son (Paris), November 1981.

"Special Mac Orlan; La Bandera, Julian Duvivier," in L'Avant-Scène du Cinéma (Paris), April 1982.

Douin, Jean-Luc, "Duvivier, la mauvaise reputation," in Télérama (Paris), 25 January 1986.

Pernod, P., "Carrousels et noeuds coulants (sur Julien Duvivier)," in Positif (Paris), no. 359, January 1991.

Masson, Alain, and others, "Julien Duvivier," in Positif (Paris), no. 429, November 1996.

Borger, Lenny, "Genius Is Just a Word," in Sight and Sound (London), vol. 8, no. 9, September 1998.

On DUVIVIER: film—

Viallaet, Pierre, and Marcel l'Herbier, Portraits filmées . . . JulienDuvivier (for television), 1953.

* * *

No one speaks of Julien Duvivier without apologizing. So many of his fifty-odd films are embarrassing to watch that it is hard to believe he was ever in charge of his career in the way we like to imagine Renoir or Clair were in charge of theirs. But Duvivier had neither the luxury nor the contacts to direct his career. He began and remained a yeoman in the industry. A director at the Théâtre Antoine in the teens, he began his film career in 1922 and made over a score of silent films, mainly melodramas. From the first he separated himself from the experiments in narration and visual style that characterized much of that period.

Duvivier's reputation as a reputable, efficient director jumped in the sound era when he made a string of small but successful films (David Golder, Les Cinq Gentilhommes maudits, Allo Berlin? Ici Paris!, Poil de carotte, La Tête d'un homme). Evidently his flair for the melodramatic and his ability to control powerful actors put him far ahead of the average French director trying to cope with the problems of sound. But in this era, as always, Duvivier discriminated little among the subjects he filmed. This aspect was most evident in 1935. First came Golgotha, a throwback to the religious films he made in the silent era, and now completely outmoded. Duvivier struggles to energize the static tableaux the film settles into. He moves his camera wildly, but seldom reaches for a key closeup or for an authentic exchange among his actors. It is all picture postcards, or rather holy cards, set off to Jacques Ibert's operatic score.

This solemn, even bombastic, film could not be farther from the swiftness and authentic feeling of the romantic Foreign Legion film La Bandera made the same year. Where Golgotha is an official presentation of French cinema, La Bandera seems more intimate, more in the spirit of the times. Its success was only the first of a set of astounding films that include La Belle Équipe, Pépé-le-Moko, UnCarnet de bal, and Le Fin du jour. It is tempting to surmise that cultural history and Julien Duvivier came for once into perfect coincidence in this age of poetic realism. Like Michael Curtiz and Casablanca, Duvivier's style and the actors who played out the roles of his dramas spoke for a whole generation. In France it was a better generation, vaguely hopeful with the popular front, but expecting the end of day.

Duvivier's contribution to these films extends beyond the direction of actors. Every film contains at least one scene of remarkable expressiveness, like the death of Regis in Pépé-Le-Moko, gunned down by his own victim with the jukebox blaring. Duvivier's sureness of pace in this era brought him a Hollywood contract even before the Nazi invasion forced him to leave France. Without the strong personality of Renoir or Clair, and with far more experience in genre pictures, Duvivier fit in rather well with American film production methods. He deplored the lack of personal control or even personal contribution in the industry, but he acquitted himself well until the Liberation.

Hoping to return to the glory years of poetic realism, Duvivier's first postwar project in France replicated the essence of its style. Panique featured sparse sets, an atmosphere that dominated a reduced but significant murder drama, and the evocative work of Michel Simon and Vivian Romance in an offbeat policier from Simenon. But the country had changed. The film failed, and Duvivier began what would become a lifelong search for the missing formula. With varying degrees of box office success he turned out contemporary and historical comedies and melodramas; the only one which put him in the spotlight was Don Camillo with Fernandel.

Believing far more in experience, planning, and hard work than in spontaneity and genius, Duvivier never relaxed. Every film taught him something and, by rights, he should have ended a better director than ever. But he will be remembered for those five years in the late 1930s, a period when every choice he made in the realms of script and direction was in tune with the romantically pessimistic sensibility of the country.

—Dudley Andrew