Julien Duvivier

MINI BIO:

Julien Duvivier was one of France's foremost directors during the great 1930s. He began his film career as an actor around the beginning of World War I, and by the end of the war, had 'graduated' via scriptwriting (he wrote or co-wrote nearly all of his films ) to director.

His silent films are of little major worth, although L'abbe Constantin was a popular success, and it is the 1930s in which Duvivier directed the treasures that turn up so often at film theater revival seasons. These are elegant, civilized, persuasive films, made by a discreet director who never went over the top, even given such an extravagant subject as Pepe Le Moko, which, innovative at the time with its spectacular overhead shots of the seething Casbah. The best of Duvivier films from that decade would include Poil de Carotte, Maria Chapdelaine and Un Carnet de bal, which last film Duvivier was to recycle during his wartime Hollywood stay, as Lydia. The Hollywood films are all quite enjoyable, especially The Great Waltz, Tales of Manhattan, and Flesh and Fantasy.