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Act Of Passion
''Lettre à mon juge'' (''Letter to My Judge'') was written by Belgian author Georges Simenon in 1946 during his stay at Bradenton Beach, Florida and published in Paris the following year by Presses de la Cité. It is a dark psychological account of a man overcome by buried passions, who becomes a murderer. Unusually among Simenon's output, it is written in the first person. The novel was first published in English in 1953 by Routledge & Kegan Paul, translated by Louise Varèse. Plot The novel is in the form of a long letter written in prison by condemned murderer Dr. Charles Alavoine. Alavoine wants to explain his personal side of the story to a judge handling his legal case, as his trial did not bring out the true motives for the crime. In the letter, he tries to explain what sort of man he is and how he came to commit his crime. The son of a brutish peasant farmer in the Vendée and his effacing wife, Alavoine qualified as a physician and bought a practice in the town of L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert ( , , ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realism strives for formal perfection, so the presentation of reality tends to be neutral, emphasizing the values and importance of style as an objective method of presenting reality". He is known especially for his debut novel ''Madame Bovary'' (1857), his ''Correspondence'', and his scrupulous devotion to his style and aesthetics. The celebrated short story writer Guy de Maupassant was a protégé of Flaubert. Life Early life and education Flaubert was born in Rouen, in the Seine-Maritime department of Upper Normandy, in northern France. He was the second son of Anne Justine Caroline (née Fleuriot; 1793–1872) and Achille-Cléophas Flaubert (1784–1846), director and senior surgeon of the major hospital in Rouen. He began writ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claude Nollier
Claude Nollier (born Yvette Emilie Maria Louise Nollier), French actress, was born on 12 December 1919 in Paris, and died 12 February 2009 in Boulogne-Billancourt. Biography A theatre actress, she joined the Comédie Française in 1946 to 1951. She began a modest cinematic career during the 1940s. She most notably worked with André Cayatte, John Huston and Sacha Guitry. She is best known for playing the role of Joan of Arc on a number of occasions for the Opéra de Paris, in Jeanne au bûcher, by Paul Claudel and Arthur Honegger. Selected filmography ;Cinema * 1944 : '' La Vie de plaisir'' by Albert Valentin * 1946 : '' Mensonges'' by Jean Stelli * 1950 : '' Justice est faite'' by André Cayatte * 1952 : '' Le Fruit défendu'' by Henri Verneuil * 1952 : ''Moulin Rouge'' by John Huston * 1954 : ''Si Versailles m'était conté'' by Sacha Guitry * 1956 : ''Si Paris nous était conté'' by Sacha Guitry * 1957 : ''Pot-Bouille'' by Julien Duvivier * 1961 : ''The Greengage Summe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Françoise Arnoul
Françoise Arnoul (born Françoise Annette Marie Mathilde Gautsch; 3 June 1931 – 20 July 2021) was a French actress, who achieved popularity during the 1950s. Early life Born in Constantine, French Algeria, as the daughter of stage actress Janine Henry and artillery general Charles Gautsch, she had two brothers. While her father continued military service in Morocco, the rest of the family moved to Paris, France, in 1945. Career After learning drama in Paris, she was noticed by director Willy Rozier, who offered her a major role in the film ''L'Épave'' (1949). Arnoul starred in such films as Henri Verneuil's ''Forbidden Fruit'' (1952), Jean Renoir's ''French Cancan'' (1954), '' People of No Importance'' (1956) with Jean Gabin, Henri Decoin's '' The Cat'' (1958), '' Way of Youth'' (1959) with Bourvil, and Jean Cocteau's ''Testament of Orpheus'' (1960). Her American film debut came in ''Companions of the Night'' (1954). Later in life, she moved into television, app ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sylvie (actress)
Louise Pauline Mainguené, known as Sylvie (3 January 1883 – 5 January 1970), was a French actress. The daughter of a sailor and a teacher, Sylvie entered an acting conservatory where she won a class comedy award unanimously. She started her professional career in 1903 and she earned her first success with ''The Old Heidelberg''. She first appeared in French silent films. She was an actress known for ''Don Camillo'' (1952), ''The Shameless Old Lady'' (1965), and ''Le Corbeau'' (1943). She was born on 3 January 1883 in Paris and died on 5 January 1970 in Compiègne, France. She won the first National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress in 1966 for her performance in ''The Shameless Old Lady''. Partial filmography * '' Germinal'' (1913) - Catherine * ''Le coupable'' (1917) - Louise Rameau * '' Roger la Honte'' (1922) - Henriette Laroque * ''Crime and Punishment'' (1935) - Catherine Ivanova * ''Life Dances On'' (1937) - La maîtresse de Thierry * ''The Lafarge Cas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fernandel
Fernand Joseph Désiré Contandin (8 May 1903 – 26 February 1971), better known as Fernandel, was a French actor and singer. Born near Marseille, France, to Désirée Bedouin and Denis Contandin, originating in Perosa Argentina, an Occitan town located in the province of Turin, Italy. He was a comedy star who first gained popularity in French vaudeville, operettas, and music-hall revues. His stage name originated from his marriage to Henriette Manse, the sister of his best friend and frequent cinematic collaborator Jean Manse. So attentive was he to his wife that his mother-in-law amusingly referred to him as ''Fernand d'elle'' ("Fernand of her"). Biography In 1930, Fernandel appeared in his first motion picture and for more than forty years he would be France's top comic actor. He was perhaps best loved for his portrayal of the irascible Italian village priest at war with the town's Communist mayor in the ''Don Camillo'' series of motion pictures. His horse-like teeth beca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henri Verneuil
Henri Verneuil (; born Ashot Malakian; 15 October 1920 – 11 January 2002) was a French-Armenian playwright and filmmaker, who made a successful career in France. He was nominated for Oscar and Palme d'Or awards, and won Locarno International Film Festival, Edgar Allan Poe Awards, French Legion of Honor, Golden Globe Award, French National Academy of Cinema and Honorary Cesar awards. According to one obituary: For exactly 40 years, the prolific Verneuil made movies as mainstream and commercial as any to be found in America or Britain. In his best period – the 1950s and 1960s – he delivered films in the "tradition of quality" so despised by the Nouvelle Vague. Many of them proved excellent vehicles for old-timers Jean Gabin and Fernandel, and newcomers such as Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon. Life and career Early life Verneuil was born Ashot Malakian ( hy, Աշոտ Մալաքեան) to Armenian parents in Rodosto, East Thrace, Turkey. In 1924, when Ashot was a little ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forbidden Fruit (1952 Film)
''Forbidden Fruit'' (french: Le Fruit défendu) is a 1952 French drama film directed by Henri Verneuil and starring Fernandel, Françoise Arnoul and Claude Nollier. Drawn from the novel '' Act of Passion'' (''Lettre à mon juge'') by Georges Simenon, it omits the book's grim resolution and instead invents a happy ending. The story it tells is of a doctor in a provincial city with a devoted wife and children who falls for a sexy but transient young woman and then loses her before his domestic and professional life are both ruined. It was shot at the Saint-Maurice Studios in Paris. The film's sets were designed by the art director Rino Mondellini. Plot Left a widower with two small daughters who are looked after by his widowed mother, Dr Pellegrin is a general practitioner in the city of Arles. At a party he sees a handsome and assured widow, Armande, who decides to be his next wife. Though she capably takes over his house, his children and the administration of his practice, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
François Bondy
François Bondy (1 January 1915 – 27 May 2003) was a Swiss journalist and novelist. Biography François Bondy was born on 1 January 1915 in Berlin. As a pupil at the ''lycée de Nice'' (1928–1933), he became one of the friends of Romain Gary, then Roman Kacew. Career He worked for Swiss and German newspapers and was reputed for his political commentaries. He translated all of Ionesco's books into German. In 1940, Bondy worked for ''Die Weltwoche''; in 1950, he joined the Congress for Cultural Freedom and established the monthly magazine '' Preuves'' in Paris. From 1970, he lived in Zürich. Bondy was the first Western intellectual who promoted among others the work of the Polish exile writer Witold Gombrowicz.see Note sur "Ferdydurke", ''Preuves'' 32/1953 Death He died on 27 May 2003 in Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northweste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Banville
William John Banville (born 8 December 1945) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, adapter of dramas and screenwriter. Though he has been described as "the heir to Proust, via Nabokov", Banville himself maintains that W. B. Yeats and Henry James are the two real influences on his work. Banville has won the 1976 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the 2003 International Nonino Prize, the 2005 Booker Prize, the 2011 Franz Kafka Prize, the 2013 Austrian State Prize for European Literature and the 2014 Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2007, Italy made him a ' of the Ordine della Stella d'Italia (essentially a knighthood) in 2017. He is a former member of Aosdána, having voluntarily relinquished the financial stipend in 2001 to another, more impoverished, writer. Born at Wexford in south-east Ireland, Banville published his first novel, ''Nightspawn'', in 1971. A second, ''Birchwood'', followed two years later. "The R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical reflection, stream of consciousness, explicit language, sex, Surrealism, surrealist free association (psychology), free association, and mysticism. His most characteristic works of this kind are ''Tropic of Cancer (novel), Tropic of Cancer'', ''Black Spring (novel), Black Spring'', ''Tropic of Capricorn (novel), Tropic of Capricorn'', and the trilogy ''The Rosy Crucifixion'', which are based on his experiences in New York City, New York and Paris (all of which were banned in the United States until 1961). He also wrote travel memoirs and literary criticism, and painted watercolors. Early life Miller was born at his family's home, 450 East 85th Street, in the Yorkville, Manhattan, Yorkville section of Manhattan, New York City. He was the son o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as '' The Daily''. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The ''Times'' has won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national " newspaper of record". For print it is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S. The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 1896, through a dual-class share structure after its shares became publicly traded. A. G. Sulzberger, the paper's publisher and the company's chairman, is the fifth generation of the family to head the pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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