Anouilh, Jean

(June 23, 1910, Bordeaux, Gironde, France - October 3, 1987, Lausanne, Switzerland)

   In the late 1920s, he studied law for a few months before joining an advertising company, Damour, where he met poet Jacques Prévert, future screenwriter Jean Aurenche, painter Max Ernst, and cartoonist Paul Grimault. He co-wrote some commercials and co-au­thored with Aurenche his first plays (Humulus le Muet and La Mandarine). He quit his job at Damour and was hired as an administrator at the Comédie des Champs-Elysées, a famous theater managed by actor-director Louis Jouvet. In 1932, he wrote his first play (L'Hermine) and soon became one of the most praised and suc­cessful playwrights of his time. Most of his works (An­tigone, Medea, Colombe, Léocadia, Pauvre Bitos, L'Alouette, L'Hurluberlu) have been staged on the five continents and became films or TV movies. Two of them have been brought to the screen by British directors John Guillermin (1962 The Waltz of the Toreadors) and Peter Glenville (1964 Becket). From 1936 (Vous n'avez rien à déclarer? / USA: Confessions of a Newlywed, Léo Joannon) to 1970 (Time for Loving, Christopher Miles, UK), he also wrote screenplays and dialogues of about twenty movies, including Monsieur Vincent (Maurice Cloche, 1947), Pattes blanches / UK and USA: White Paws (Jean Grémillon), and Caroline Chérie / USA: Dear Caroline (Ri­chard Pottier). The first feature film he directed was an adaptation of one his most succesful plays. His daughter Catherine (1934-1989) was a stage actress.

 Filmography

1944 ◘ Le Voyageur sans Bagages (also original play; co-screenwriter, co-adapter, co-dialogist)

1951 ◘ Deux Sous de Violettes (also co-adapter)