Encyclopedia of French Film Directors

In the Encyclopedia of French Film Directors, I have attempted
to identify every French director who had
made at least one feature fi lm during the fi rst century
of cinema (1895–2005). From undisputed masters to
obscure one-timers, nearly 3,000 directors are cited
here, including at least 200 fi lmmakers not mentioned
in similar books published in France.
Filmmakers of nearly every form and genre
of cinema are represented in the following pages,
including silent-era directors, animators, documentarians,
and avant-garde auteurs working on Super
8 and on video. The only category of fi lmmakers I
didn’t retain is “porn directors” (or, more precisely,
directors known mostly as specialists of that kind of
production), not by excess of puritanism but because
establishing their accurate fi lmographies is not possible
(many French porn fl icks of the 1980s were
compilations of scenes taken from other fi lms). Of
course, every rule has its exceptions, and I couldn’t
ignore such names as José Benazeraf, Francis Leroi,
Jean-François Davy, or Claude Mulot, who became
famous as pornographers but also signed comedies,
“fi lms noir,” and fantastic movies. In the mid-1970s
and until the 1980s, a dozen of other French “mainstream
directors” shot “blue movies.” I have mentioned
this period of their career in the biographical
text dedicated to them, but I didn’t include X-rated
pictures in their fi lmographies.
Most of the directors listed here are French born,
but I have also included many fi lmmakers of foreign
descent defi nitively based or living for many years in
France and notably those—Africans, Asians, Americans,
or Europeans—who had fi lmed a qualitatively or
quantitatively essential part of their work in the old
country, where Jean Renoir was born. For instance,
there was the case of American Jules Dassin, who gave
I PREFACE
vii
to French cinema a fi lm noir masterpiece in 1955 (Du
Rifi fi chez les Hommes/USA: Rifi fi ). Conversely, such
fi lmmakers as Robert Florey or Jean-Marie Straub and
Danièle Huillet, who worked mainly abroad (in the
United States and Germany/Italy, respectively), could
hardly be considered “French directors” and are not
listed in my book.
I insist on the fact that the Encyclopedia of French
Film Directors is the most comprehensive book ever
dedicated to French fi lmmakers. For the fi rst time, all
TV works and shorts of each director are mentioned.
Either by disinterest or more probably by lack of
pages, my predecessors ignored these important parts
of directors' careers. Even if this encyclopedia aims
at exhaustivity, I know that omissions and errors are
inevitable. I invite any reader who wishes to send me
criticisms, comments, or corrections to contact me in
care of my publisher.
Entries are presented in alphabetical order. Each
of them contains brief biographical summary, including
dates and places of birth and death, information
on the individual’s education and professional training,
and other details, such as real names (when the fi lmmaker
uses a pseudonym). Unfortunately, some vital
dates could not be found, especially for a few silentera
directors. Most of the biographies mention fi lmmakers’
extra directorial credits (complete when the
person is mainly a director, selective for the actors,
cinematographers, editors, screenwriters, playwrights,
novelists, journalists, or composers who tried their
luck behind the camera).
The entries also provide complete fi lmographies,
including credits for feature fi lms, shorts, documentaries,
and TV work. The heading “Filmography”
indicates that what follows is a complete list of
directorial credits. All movies and TV productions