Encyclopedia of French Film Directors

1928 La Chute de la Maison Usher / UK and USA:
The Fall of the House of Usher (also screenwriter,
adapter, producer)
1929 Finis Terrae (documentary; also screenwriter)
Sa Tête (short; also screenwriter)
1930 Le Pas de la Mule (documentary short)
1931 Mor-Vran / La Mer des Corbeaux (mediumlength;
documentary)
Notre-Dame de Paris (documentary)
La Chanson des Peupliers (illustrated song)
Le Cor (illustrated song)
1932 Les Berceaux (illustrated song)
La Villanelle des Rubans (illustrated song)
Le Vieux Chaland (illustrated song)
Le Petit Chemin de Fer (short)
1933 L’Or des Mers (documentary; shot in 1931)
L’Homme à l’Hispano (also screenwriter,
adapter, dialogist)
1934 La Châtelaine du Liban (also co-screenwriter)
Chanson d’Ar-Mor (short; also adapter)
La Vie d’un grand Journal (short)
1935 Marius et Olive à Paris (shot in 1933)
1936 Cœur de Gueux / Cuor di vagabondo (France /
Italy)
La Bourgogne (short)
La Bretagne (short)
Vive la Vie (medium-length)
1938 La Femme du Bout du Monde (also screenwriter,
adapter, dialogist)
La Relève (documentary)
Les Bâtisseurs (short)
Eau vive (short; also screenwriter)
1939 Artères de France (short; co-director with
René Lucot)
1947 Kampen om tungtvannet / La Bataille de l’Eau
lourde / UK and USA: Operation Swallow: The
Battle of Heavy Water (documentary; Titus
Vibe Müller, Jean Dréville; Norway / France;
Jean Epstein collaborated on the shooting of
the fi rst part of the fi lm)
Le Tempestaire (short; also screenwriter)
1948 Les Feux de la Mer (short)
EPSTEIN, MARIE (Marie-Antonine Epstein / August
14, 1899, Warsaw, Poland–April 24, 1995, Paris,
France)
The daughter of a French-Jewish father and a Polish
mother, she was fi lm director Jean Epstein’s sister.
In France since 1903, she worked mainly as screenwriter
and co-director with her brother and Jean
ERTAUD, JACQUES • 365
Benoît-Lévy (she was his assistant for Le Feu de Paille
/ USA: Fire in the Straw, 1940, and most of the shorts
he directed). During the occupation of France, she
was arrested by the Nazis with Jean Epstein and
escaped the concentration camps thanks to the Red
Cross. Until the end of the 1980s, she worked at the
Cinémathèque française (she co-founded it in the
1930s), where she restored many silent fi lms. She
also dedicated much of her time to the knowledge of
her brother’s works and gathered all his theoretical
writings into two volumes titled Ecrits sur le Cinéma
(Editions Seghers, 1975) and, as producer, Maternité
(Jean Benoît-Lévy, 1929). Other credits (as screenwriter):
1923 Cœur fi dèle (also co-screenwriter, actor
as Mlle. Merice, Jean Epstein); 1925 Le Double Amour
(Jean Epstein); 1927 Six et demi, Onze (Jean Epstein);
1958 Liberté surveillée (also co-screenwriter; Henri
Aisner, Vladimir Voltchek, France / Czechoslovakia,
shot in 1957).
Filmography
1929 Il était une Fois trois Amis (co-director with
Jean Benoît-Lévy)
Peau de Pêche (co-director with Jean Benoît-
Lévy)
1930 Jimmy (medium-length; co-director with Jean
Benoît-Lévy)
1931 Cœur de Paris / Le Cœur de Paris (co-director
with Jean Benoît-Lévy; also co-screenwriter)
1933 La Maternelle / UK and USA: Children of Montmartre
(co-director with Jean Benoît-Lévy;
also co-screenwriter, co-dialogist)
1935 Itto (co-director with Jean Benoît-Lévy)
1936 Hélène (co-director with Jean Benoît-Lévy;
also co-screenwriter, co-dialogist)
1937 La Mort du Cygne (co-director with Jean
Benoît-Lévy; also co-screenwriter, co-adapter,
co-dialogist)
1939 Altitude 3200 (co-director with Jean Benoît-
Lévy)
1953 La grande speranza (documentary; co-director
with Leonide Azar; Italy)
ERTAUD, JACQUES (November 18, 1924, Paris,
France–November 18, 1995, Paris, France)
The son of a seagoing captain, he just had time to
complete his studies in high school before joining
the FFI (Forces Françaises de l’intérieur, one of the
branches of the French Resistance during the occupation
of France) as a skier scout. After the war, he