Encyclopedia of French Film Directors

of France. Going back to France after the liberation,
he still directed four masterpieces before dying of a
heart attack at age fi fty-four. He was on the point of
directing a new picture, Montparnasse 19 / Gli amori di
Montparnasse / UK: The Lovers of Montparnasse / USA:
Modigliani of Montparnasse. Jacques Becker, who fi nally
shot the fi lm, dedicated it to his memory. In 1957, a
few weeks before his death, he directed onstage a
Baumarchais play (La Folle Journée ou Le Mariage de
Figaro). He shot a few scenes of Marcel L’Herbier’s Le
Scandale (1934). German director Martina Müller fi lmed
a documentary on him (1990 Max Ophüls—Den
Schönen guten waren; Germany).
Filmography
1930 Dann schon lieber Lebertran / UK: I’d Rather
Have Cod Liver Oil (short; also co-screenwriter;
Germany)
1932 Die verliebte Firma (also co-screenwriter; Germany)
Die verkaufte Brot / UK and USA: The Bartered
Bride (also co-screenwriter; Germany)
1933 Die lachenden Erben / UK: The Merry Heirs /
USA: Laughing Heirs (also co-screenwriter;
Germany)
Liebelei / UK and USA: Flirtation / Light O’Love
/ Playing at Love (also co-screenwriter; Germany)
1934 Une Histoire d’Amour (French-language version
of Liebelei; also co-screenwriter)
On a vole un Homme / UK and USA: Man
Stolen
La signora di tutti / USA: Everybody’s Woman
(also co-screenwriter; Italy)
1935 Divine (also co-adapter)
1936 La Tendre Ennemie / USA: The Tender Enemy
(also co-screenwriter, co-producer)
Valse brillante de Chopin (short)
Avé Maria / Avé Maria de Schubert (short)
Komedie om Geld / Comedie om Geld (also coscreenwriter;
Netherlands)
1937 Yoshiwara (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter)
1938 Le Roman de Werther / Werther (also coadapter)
1939 Sans Lendemain / USA: There’s No Tomorrow
(also co-adapter)
1940 De Mayerling à Sarajevo / UK: Sarajevo / USA:
Mayerling to Sarajevo / US video: From Mayerling
to Sarajevo (also co-adapter)
1941 L’Ecole des Femmes (unfi nished)
1947 The Exile (USA)
ORMESSON, ANTOINE D’ • 781
1948 Letter from an Unknown Woman (also uncredited
screenwriter; USA)
1949 Caught (USA)
The Reckless Moment (USA)
1950 La Ronde / UK and USA: Roundabout (also coscreenwriter,
co-adapter)
Vendetta (Max Ophüls shot a few scenes
and was fi red by producer Howard Hughes
in 1946; Stuart Heisler, Preston Sturges, and
Paul Weatherwax directed some sequences;
Mel Ferrer reshot the ending and added sequences
in 1950)
1952 Le Plaisir / UK: House of Pleasure / USA: Pleasure
(three segments: “Le Masque,” “La Maison
Tellier,” “Le Modèle”; also co-screenwriter,
co-adapter, producer)
1953 Madame de . . . / Gioielli di Madame de . . . / UK:
Diamond Earrings / USA: The Earrings of Madame
de . . . (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter;
France / Italy)
1955 Lola Montès / Lola Montez / UK: The Fall of
Lola Montes / USA: The Sins of Lola Montes
(also screenwriter, co-adapter; France / West
Germany)
ORMESSON, ANTOINE D’ (November 3, 1924,
Paris, France–)
A music lover from his early childhood, he wrote
a piano and orchestra concerto at age seventeen
(turned into a violoncello and orchestra concerto, it
was created at the Théâtre du Châtelet, in 1969). In
1942, while his father, politician and novelist Wladimir
d’Ormesson, was chased by the Gestapo, he fl ed to
Switzerland. Educated at Geneva and the Lausanne
Conservatories of Music (1943–1944), he joined the
First French Army, commanded by General de Lattre
de Tassigny. After taking part in the Rhône, Vosges, and
Alsace campaigns, he followed his father to Argentina
(1945), where he completed his musical studies with
Juan Bautista, a disciple of Manuel de Falla. He returned
to France in 1948 and worked music for eight years,
earning a living working for an electronics industry
company (La Radio-Industrie). In 1957, he created a
fi lm production company, Sumer, and directed two
shorts and six feature fi lms. He is still a composer.
Filmography
1961 Les Dieux de l’Eté (short; co-director with
Louis Grospierre; also screenwriter, producer,
composer)