Marcel Carné | |
|---|---|
 Carné in 1950 | |
| Born | Marcel Albert Carné (1906-08-18)18 August 1906 Paris, France |
| Died | 31 October 1996(1996-10-31) (aged 90) Clamart, France |
| Years active | 1936–1976 |
Marcel Albert Carné (French:[maʁsɛlalbɛʁkaʁne]; 18 August 1906[1] – 31 October 1996) was a French film director. A key figure in thepoetic realism movement, Carné's best known films includePort of Shadows (1938),Le Jour Se Lève (1939),Les Visiteurs du Soir (1942) andChildren of Paradise (1945); the latter has been cited as one of thegreat films of all time.
Born inParis, France, the son of a cabinet maker whose wife died when their son was five,[2] Carné began his career as a film critic, becoming editor of the weekly publication,Hebdo-Films,[3] and working forCinémagazine andCinémonde between 1929 and 1933.[4] In the same period he worked insilent film as a camera assistant with directorJacques Feyder. By age 25, Carné had already directedNogent, Eldorado du dimanche (1929), his first short film. He assisted Feyder (andRené Clair) on several films through toLa kermesse héroïque (1935).
Feyder accepted an invitation to work in England forAlexander Korda, for whom he madeKnight Without Armour (1937), but made it possible for Carné to take over his project,Jenny (1936), as its director.[4] The film marked the beginning of a successful collaboration withsurrealist poet and screenwriterJacques Prévert. This collaborative relationship lasted for more than a dozen years, during which Carné and Prévert created their best remembered films. Together, they were involved in thepoetic realism film movement of fatalistic tragedies; Ginette Vincendeau said that "the movement's greatest classics are probably Marcel Carné'sLe Quai des brumes in 1938 andLe Jour Se Lève in 1939."[5]
Under theGerman occupation of France during World War II, Carné worked in theVichy zone where he subverted the regime's attempts to control art; several of his team were Jewish, includingJoseph Kosma and set designerAlexandre Trauner. Under difficult conditions they made Carné's most highly regarded filmLes Enfants du paradis (Children of Paradise, 1945) released after the Liberation of France. In the late 1990s, the film was voted "Best French Film of the Century" in a poll of 600 French critics and professionals. Post-war, he and Prévert followed this triumph with what at the time was the most expensive production ever undertaken in the history of French film. But the result, titledLes Portes de la nuit, was panned by the critics and a box-office failure and was their last completed film.
By the 1950s, Carné's reputation was in eclipse. The critics ofCahiers du cinéma, who became the film makers of theNew Wave, dismissed him and placed his films' merits solely with Prévert.[6] Other than his 1958 hitYoung Sinners (Les Tricheurs), Carné's postwar films met with only uneven success and many were greeted by an almost unrelenting negative criticism from the press and within members of the film industry. In 1958, Carné was the Head of the Jury at the6th Berlin International Film Festival.[7] His 1971 filmLaw Breakers was entered into the7th Moscow International Film Festival.[8] Carné made his last film in 1976.
Carné supposedly washomosexual.[9] Several of his films (Hôtel du Nord,Les Visiteurs du soir,Les Enfants du paradis,Le Quai des brumes,L'Air de Paris andLa Merveilleuse visite) contain references to male homosexuality orbisexuality. His one-time partner wasRoland Lesaffre, who appeared in many of his films.[citation needed]
Edward Baron Turk has published a biography of Carné titledChild of Paradise: Marcel Carné and the Golden Age of French Cinema.[10]
In 1992, Carné attempted to make one more film,Mouche, adapted from theGuy de Maupassant story. However, he became ill during early production stages, and financing was withdrawn. Carné died in 1996 inClamart,Hauts-de-Seine, and he was buried in theCimetière Saint-Vincent inMontmartre.[3]
